At this stage of the game, I'm looking at the proton-proton chain for
Traveller fusion designs and have almost (but not quite) decided that TDR will
officially adopt proton-proton reactions and leave it at that. The reasons are
entirely founded on game mechanics: neutrino sensors wouldn't be as useful as
slow neutron sensors if the plants used D+D or D+T; refueling from gas giants
becomes ridiculous or impossible unless we assume the plant can burn straight
protium; the TL sliding scale for plant efficiency makes no sense if D+D or
other reactions are considered -- only p-p reactions could be blamed for a
reactor that's so criminally inefficient even at TL 15; military contractors
would gladly sacrifice efficiency for refueling ability (remember the cardinal
rule of ground combat in the 20th BEK-- cut the fuel lines and the tanks can't
go vroom any more. Imagine how interesting a desert war would be if the armor
could burn sandstone or other easily-found-in-the-wilderness junk?
So unless there are further arguments, TDR will go to Protium-based
proton-proton chains for fusion tech, and assume that "refined fuel" is pure
liquid hydrogen and "unrefined fuel" is liquefied gas giant atmosphere or
water (and since I live two blocks from Dow, I'll beat him to a pulp in person
when he raises the question of water being more efficient storage of hydrogen
than LH2, so the TML won't have to. |-> )
metlay