  Tokamak fusion reactors produce energetic He ions that penetrate surfaces
less than 20 micron and neutrons that spread throughout the reactor.
Experiments with similar swift He ions in heavy metals show that the vibronic
coupling of nonlinear lattice excitations creates mobile lattice excitations,
called quodons. These are decoupled from phonons, move ballistically at near
sonic speed and propagate easily in metals and insulators. They can couple to
and transport electric charge, which allows their observation in experiments.
They rapidly disperse heat throughout a fusion reactor and carry charge through
electrical insulators. In this paper we present an experimental design that
separates quodon current and conduction current and therefore makes it possible
to measure the former. We also present time-of-flight experiments that lead to
an estimation of the quodon speed which is of the order of the sound velocity
and therefore much faster than the drift of electrons or holes in conduction
currents. We present results on quodon current in tungsten, a material widely
used in nuclear fusion technology, showing that many quodons will be produced
in fusion reactors. It is predicted that at high output powers, quodons created
by He ions and neutrons might adversely impact on cryogenic systems.
