Self-sustained exothermic reaction of anti-Stokes gamma transitions in long-lived isomeric nuclei. I

The conditions for implementing a self-sustained exothermic nuclear (combustion) reaction in a system comprising long-lived metastable isomers and quasi-equilibrium high-temperature black-body radiation are examined. In this system the radiative decay of the metastable state is a result of an anti-Stokes process bypassing a strongly forbidden isomeric transition. The anti-Stokes transition in the reaction zone is triggered by the corresponding resonance spectral components of the quasi-equilibrium radiation, the temperature of which, sufficient to close the energy reaction cycle, is in its turn maintained by the absorption of hard photons, emitted by nuclei, in the reaction zone.