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Nuclear Fusion
Nuclear Fusion
AA 2013-1014
ENERGETICS
2 Nuclear Reactor Physics and Engineering B
Total World Energy Consumption Rate
EIA 2011
The world energy demand
is constantly increasing.
Major contributions from
increasing world
population + emerging
countries (China, India, )
How long can we sustain
the increasing demand?
3 Nuclear Reactor Physics and Engineering B
How Much Power Could be Produced I
Solar energy / wind are the only renewable resource which could safely meet the world
power demand but we should exploit a huge surface (a non-negligible fraction of the
whole earth surface)
Wave/tidal and hydro could give a non-negligible contribution, but tides may be located
far fromthe final user, and water resources may be precious for other uses
Biomass has a relatively large potential, but at the cost of subtracting resources to
agriculture (==> food production)
4 Nuclear Reactor Physics and Engineering B
How Much Power Could be Produced
II
Coal/Lignite, Tar-Sand Oil and Shale Oil could be attractive on the medium period (a
few 10s years), from a purely energy/production perspective
Fossil fuels in general have a number of counter indications as fuels:
Pollution: they extraction/burning cycle often is associated with large amounts
of toxic or green-house producing wastes (with natural gas as an exception)
Resource availability: hydro-carbons are often a valuable resource for a number
of industrial applications
Political issues: the major fossil fuel world reserves are concentrated in
sometimes unstable regions of the earth
5 Nuclear Reactor Physics and Engineering B
How Much Power Could be Produced
III
Standard U-235 cycle is only partly attractive. Thorium and U-238 cycles are much more
interesting. However, massive exploitation of fission power meets some difficulties due
to:
Nuclear waste concern: where are we going to store long-life radioactive wastes?
Weapon proliferation concerns: U-238 and Th-232 cycles involve self-breeding
technologies, which could be used (in principle at least) also to produce large amount of
concentrated fissile materials for weapons. How are we going to control this?
Public acceptability concerns: speak about nuclear plants, and somebody will ask you
Are you planning to put a nuclear bomb in my backyard???
6 Nuclear Reactor Physics and Engineering B
How Much Power Could be Produced
IV
An amount of power practically unlimited could be available, using elements diffused
everywhere (take up just water).
The basic physics principles of nuclear fusion are relatively simple and well known since
about once century now.
Apparently, we simply need to stretch our arms and grab it we will see later in detail
7 Nuclear Reactor Physics and Engineering B
Focus Your Mind
The world energy demand is constantly increasing, and will likely continue
to stay so in the next few decades
A few options to meet the expected energy demand may be considered:
None of them can currently be considered the ultimate solution
A mix of them is likely to be developed in the next few years/decades
The exact future energy market evolution can obviously not be predicted,
depending on:
Economical issues
Political decisions
Technical developments
A mixture of all the possible energy sources is likely to be considered in
the next future. Which role for nuclear fusion?
Potentially enormous
In fact: it will depend on the future technology evolution
8 Nuclear Reactor Physics and Engineering B
INTRODUCTION TO NUCLEAR FUSION
9 Nuclear Reactor Physics and Engineering B
Key Concepts: Energy Release I
Energy is another word to say stored
work
(*)
=
Large confinement time < == > small energy losses
Nuclear Reactor Physics and Engineering B
Key Concepts: Energy Balance
In a plasma, you can estimate the total energy content by integrating the
average energy per particle of a perfect gas over the plasma volume:
19
{ }V nT x nTd W 3 3
3
= =
= x d p P
Tn H
3
Power losses (cooling) are characterized by the (diffusive) energy
confinement time
E
E
L
W
P
=
At steady state H L
P P =
Nuclear Reactor Physics and Engineering B
Key Concepts: Confinement
Which confinement time / density for a fusion relevant
plasma?
There are two concepts around:
The plasma will be (thermally) self sustained (IGNITION)
The plasma will be almost thermally self sustained (large Q)
The IGNITION requirements are easily expressed by the so-
called Lawson criterion
Nuclear Reactor Physics and Engineering B 20
E rad in
U P P W
/ = =
At ignition:
2
n P P
fus
~ P
external heating
: not economically attractive, but
interesting for physics/engineering preparatory
experiments
Q = 10: P