Sustainable Cities for the Third Millennium: The Odyssey of Urban Excellence by Voula P. Mega

Author:Voula P. Mega
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Springer New York, New York, NY

4.5 Prospects for Nuclear Fusion: A Competitor for Renewables?

Controlled thermonuclear fusion holds enormous potential, since it leads to a virtually unlimited source of cleaner and safer energy. It constitutes a frontier technology founded on a strong vision which requires substantial and sustained effort, not only in research and development, but also in international cooperation, socioeconomic modelling of options and financing. Fusion research spans various disciplines and relies on multiple innovations, achieved by cutting-edge developments in many scientific and engineering fields. Progress is being achieved by successive long steps that gradually lead into the next stride.

European research and development activities on fusion include studies and evaluation of alternative concepts of magnetic confinement, and coordinated activities in fusion technology, in particular research on fusion materials. Socioeconomic aspects of fusion, especially economic costs and social acceptability, are under continuous research together with safety and environmental aspects.

Nuclear fusion occurs naturally in stars. Although significant progress has been achieved in reproducing this concept on Earth with various fusion experiments, it was clear from an early stage that a larger and more powerful device would be needed to create the conditions expected in a fusion reactor and to demonstrate its scientific and technical feasibility. Scientists and engineers began developing conceptual and engineering designs for such a “next-step” device, at European and international level.

The international experimental fusion reactor ITER is a technoscientific megaproject that aims to advance nuclear fusion for the large-scale carbon-free production of baseload power. Iter also means “journey”, “direction” or “way” in Latin, reflecting ITER’s potential role in harnessing nuclear fusion as a peaceful power source. During its operational lifetime, ITER will test key technologies necessary for the next phase, involving the demonstration fusion power plant that will capture fusion energy for commercial use.

ITER is designed to produce approximately 500 MW of fusion power sustained for up to 1,000 s by the fusion of about 0.5 g of a deuterium/tritium mixture in its approximately 840-m3 reactor chamber. ITER should generate the 500 MW of fusion power over periods of around 8 min, with a tenfold energy output-to-input ratio under conditions similar to those expected in an electricity-generating fusion power plant.

Joining efforts towards the international experimental reactor ITER has been a major step forward. It began in 1985 with a partnership bringing together the EU, the then Soviet Union, the USA and Japan. The Agreement on the Engineering Design activities of ITER, signed in 1992 under the auspices of the IAEA, between the EU, Japan, Russia and the USA, joined later by the other partners, has been instrumental. The conceptual and engineering design phases led to an acceptable detailed design in 2001, underpinned by research and development by the ITER parties to establish its practical feasibility. The USA opted out of the project between 1999 and 2003, and new parties included Canada, China, Kazakhstan, Korea and India.

The timescales are long and depend on the magnitude of investments. Initial studies indicated that slightly more than 8 years would be necessary between the start of ground excavation and production of the first plasma.

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