SUMMARY:
International
Thermonuclear
Experimental
Reactor
(ITER),
will be the world's largest
fusion reactor, located in
Saint-Paul-les-Durance,
France.
The world's 440
nuclear FISSION
reactors generate
about 10% of global
electricity needs.
A similar amount
of nuclear FUSION
reactors could
theoretically replace
all coal-powered power
plants, which currently
supply nearly 40%
of the world's electricity.
Fusion reactors have been
touted as a perfect energy
source since they cannot
melt down and produce
much less radioactive
waste unlike the
fission reactors.
If successful,
ITER will become
the world's
first source
of electrical power
that does not exploit
any naturally
occurring fuel.
I suppose ITER and other
fusion power plants will be
opposed by the so-called
"environmentalists"?
DETAILS:
Practical nuclear fusion
technology has remained
jafar-off mirage.
After many years of delays,
scientists have finally
broken ground on the
five-year assembly phase
ITER is funded
by six nations:
US,
Russia,
China,
India,
Japan,
South Korea,
ITER will be the world's
largest tokamak design
fusion device with an
estimated cost of
~$24 billion
Capable of generating
about 500 MW of
thermal fusion
energy as early
as 2025.
Fusion technology
remained classified
until the 1958
Atoms for Peace
conference in Geneva.
It soon became clear
that practical nuclear
fusion would only make
the desired progress
through international
cooperation due to
high costs and the
complexity of the
devices involved.
Nuclear fusion
involves smashing
together hydrogen
atoms hard enough
to form helium and
release energy
in the E=MC2
mass-energy
equivalence.
Nuclear fusion
generates four times
as much energy
from the same
mass of fuel
as nuclear fission,
a technology
that involves
splitting atoms
that is currently
employed in the
world's nuclear
reactors.
A very high temperature
is required to kickstart
the process of nuclear
fusion and sustain it.
Every fusion experiment
so far has been energy
negative, taking in
more energy
than it generates.
ITER is a nuclear
power plant designed
to demonstrate that
carbon-free,
energy-positive
fusion energy
can become
a commercial
reality.
ITER plans to use
tokamak reactors
to confine a
deuterium-tritium
plasma magnetically.
The big fundamental
challenge is for ITER
to achieve
a rate of heat
emitted by
a fusion plasma
higher than the
rate of energy injected
into the plasma.
ITER scientists developed
a new superconducting
material--essentially
a steel tape coated with
yttrium-barium-copper oxide,
or YBCO,.
This allows them to build
smaller and more powerful
magnets.
And lowers the energy
required to get
the fusion reaction
off the ground.
According to
Fusion for Energy
--the EU's joint undertaking
for ITER--18vniobium-tin
superconducting magnets,
aka toroidal field coils,
will be used to contain
the 150 million degrees
celsius plasma.
The powerful magnets
will generate a powerful
magnetic field equal to
11.8 Tesla, or
a million times
stronger than
the earth's
magnetic field.
Nearly 3,000 tonnes
of these superconducting
magnets will be connected
by 200km of superconducting
cables and kept at -269C
by the world's largest
cryostat manufactured
in India.
Europe will manufacture
ten of the toroidal field coils
with Japan manufacturing nine.
The 23,000-ton tokamak
is designed to produce
500 MW of fusion power
from 50 MW of input
heating power,
making it
energy positive.
Fission nuclear reactors
remain the only reliable
source of tritium for use
in fusion reactors.
The deuterium-tritium reaction
is favored by fusion developers
over deuterium-deuterium
mainly because its reactivity
is 20x higher than a
deuterium-deuterium
fueled reaction, and requires
a temperature only a third
of the temperature required
by deuterium-only fusion.
Deuterium is available
in ordinary water,
but tritium is rare in nature,
mainly because this
hydrogen isotope has
a half-life of only 12.3 years.