If metallic hydrogen could be retained metastably on release of pressure, what properties would it have?
Metallic hydrogen is speculated to have a number of interesting properties and important applications, if it could be quenched from high pressures to ambient. It is not known how, nor even whether, metallic hydrogen could be quenched to ambient but the potential benefits are enormous if it could be. For this reason it is worth speculating on possible uses of metastable solid metallic hydrogen. The ten times higher density of metallic DT fuel pellets, relative to molecular solid ones, would increase substantially the energy produced in laser-driven ICF, giving giant lasers, such as LLNL’s NOVA and future NIF, an even larger margin for success than expected previously. The higher starting density of the fuel might produce a sufficiently large increase in ICF energy yield such that it might be possible to use only deterium as the fuel. The absence of radioactive tritium might make the ICF energy source much more attractive to commercial energy producers. Metallic solid hydrogen has been p
