PROSPECTS OF FUSION ENERGY*

Henry J. Ramos
National Institute of Physics, U.P. Diliman, Quezon City

1. INTRODUCTION

The never-failing power of the sun, a plasma with energy to last for 5,000 million
years is the vision that lies behind the concept of nuclear fusion, the power that man now
seeks to harness. The aim of fusion research is to use the inexhaustible fuel of the sea
and to reproduce on earth the power of the sun to provide unlimited energy for the future.

Recent progress in the development of a fusion-power reactor provides conclusive

evidence that fusion energy is nearing its realization. An indication of the significance of
this progress is the extent to which a number of countries are supporting extensive
programs on fusion research. In fact some energy policy-makers have openly vouched
for an energy economy based purely on fusion. The achievement of a practical fusion-
power reactor would have a profound impact on almost every aspect of human society.

While the scientific feasibility of fusion power is envisaged to be demonstrable in the

next decades, technological, engineering, economic and social aspects of the power-
generation problems have to be considered. As by-products of fusion research, however,
we now see the technical and industrial applications of plasma in the form of flames, the
earth’s ionosphere, glow and arc discharges, and lasers.

In this paper, we focus our attention to the immediate and long-term prospects of
plasmas in the light of man’s energy requirements. The basic physical principles of some
laboratory plasmas and their applications will be described. The role of energy is first
discussed in Section 2 followed by a discussion of the world energy state in Section 3.
Then we define what a plasma is in Section 4. Finally, the prospects of fusion as an
alternative energy source are presented in Sections 5-10, followed by concluding remarks
in Section 11.

2. THE ROLE OF ENERGY

Mankind’s increasing demands for energy has forced society into difficult
economic, social and environmental problems. The solutions of these problems require
careful analysis and planning using the best available decision-making information. At
present, 6 billion people consume about 0.41 Q of energy per year, i.e., about 6.85 x 10 10
barrels of oil (1Q = 1.85 x 1011 barrels of oil) or about 15 terawatts. One terawatt is
equivalent to 5 billion barrels of oil (BOE). In 1990, 5.3 billion people consumed about
____________________
*Paper prepared for use in the course Science, Technology and Society (STS)

1
13.7 x 1012 watts. In Q units of energy the world fossil energy reserved are shown in
Table 1. The percentage of known reserves consumed are also presented together with
the estimated undiscovered reserves.

The limited sources of fuel oil, petrol and natural gas are real enough if we
consider the asymptotic level for world energy consumption by the ultimate world
population of 9 billion. This consumption is projected to be about 27 terawatts or 0.7Q or
1.35 x 1011 BOE nearly 2 times the present consumption. This growth depends on the
rate of population increase and per capita energy consumption. The shortage of energy is
also provoked partially by political dilemmas and by demand exceeding productive
capacity. If the population is 14 billion, the projected consumption is 42 terawatts per
year (i.e., 2.1 x 1011 BOE) or 1.14Q, about 3 times present consumption.

3. THE WORLD ENERGY STATE

To date the world has consumed about 3% of known coal reserves and about 10%
of the known petroleum and gas reserves. At 0.4Q per year the known total fossil fuel
reserves at 32Q would last about 80 years and the possible total reserve of 452 Q would
last some 1130 years. There is thus a grave threat that depletion of resources is
conceivable with alternatives requiring lead times for development and deployment on a
meaningful scale. This is the world energy situation but is has relevance to the Philippine
setting.

Over the past centuries states have come to appreciate the improved standard of
living achieved through development of new energy sources. A desire to share in
material prosperity is readily explained by examining the relationship between the per
capita gross national product (GNP) and energy consumption per capita. This
relationship is summarized in Figure 1 for selected countries including the Philippines. A
near linear relationship is observed.

Most third world countries (the Philippines included) have per capita GNP less
than U.S. $1000 and per capita energy consumption less than 25 x 10 -25 Q per annum.
The implication is quite clear. Over the next decades, the depletion of available energy
reserves will hasten as the developing world has a long way to go to attain a western
standard of living. For example in 1990, 318 million Americans consumed about 4.11 x
1012 watts of energy (2.06 x 1010 BOE or 0.11Q), that is, 3.5 x 10-10 Q of energy per
capita.

At the ultimate rate of consumption of 0.7Q a year, 32Q would last only 46 or so
years. Fossil fuel reserves cannot therefore sustain the world demand for energy. New
discoveries of additional reserves would only add about 20 or so years to the depletion
point.

2
 Readily available cheap ores of uranium provide in comparison to conventional
fuels a potential resource of 740 Q, some 22 times larger than the known 32Q of total
fossil energy reserves. Electricity is the principal method for converting nuclear energy
for present day use. It is therefore imperative that a very large increase in electric
capacity would be needed to offset the dwindling supplies of fossil fuels.

The fission (splitting of nuclei) of U23 (which is 0.71% in natural uranium ore)
could generate the major part of the total electrical energy needs for at least several
decades, or for a period intermediate between that permitted by available resources of
petroleum and gas and that of coal. Breeding plutonium from U 238 placed in and around
fast reactors can enlarge this period by a factor of 60 and uranium would then represent a
greater source of energy than would coal as a fossil fuel.

Fast breeder reactors harness about 70% of energy content of uranium. With the
breeder reactor, the amount of energy obtainable from one gram of U 238 amounts to 13.7
BOE. These reactors, however, use sodium which burns in air and reacts with water, thus
as with other reactor types pose a danger. Hence the need for elaborate safeguards is a
must. Figure 2 shows the fission reaction of the isotope U235. This isotope is the only
fissile isotope capable of fissioning under normal conditions. In the breeding process,
U238 absorbs neutrons in a nuclear reaction. This transforms U238 into fissionable Pt239 or
Th232 which becomes fissionable U233. It is therefore possible to create more nuclear
power than is consumed.

The economic advantage of nuclear power from fissionable uranium has to be

weighed side by side with the environmental and safety factors. Cases against nuclear
power are summarized below:

(a) hazards of storing radioactive wastes for as long as 250,000 years;

(b) irresponsible acts of vandalism on the part of the vandal, terrorist or thief; and
(c) failure of component parts.

The recent incidents at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Tokai-mura focus the above
issues against fission reactors.

Fusion energy offers an environmentally safe energy option for the future. Before
we discuss this prospect, let us first look at basic physical principles of a plasma, the
further state of matter, which principles are the bases of fusion.

4. WHAT IS A PLASMA?

In nature and in the laboratory a collection of charged particles which exhibits

certain distinctive characteristics is called a plasma.

3
 Firstly, the collection is macroscopically electrically neutral, i.e., the densities of
positive and negative charges are approximately equal.
For the simplest case when all the ions are singly charged atoms (e.g. a hydrogen
plasma)
ne = ni
where ne and ni are the total number of electrons and ions in a given volume.
More exactly
ne >> |ne – ni|,

In the more general case when the plasma consists of n1 singly charged ions, n2
doubly charged ions, and so on, we have the following relationship

ne = n1 + 2 n2 + 3 n3 + …

Aside from the neutrality of charges property, a plasma has the following
characteristics:

(1) It is a non-degenerate gas whose behaviour is governed by classical statistics

and not by quantum statistics. Here the thermal energy kT (k is Boltzmann’s
constant) is much greater than the work function Wf;

kT >> Wf (= h2/2m (3n/8 π )2/3)

where h is Planck’s constant and n, m and T are the number density, mass
and temperature of the relevant particles, usually the electrons.

(2) All particle populations of the plasma have substantial degree of random
motion, meaning the random velocities of any population are large compared
with the average relative velocities of any two populations.

(3) The characteristic dimension (or length) of the plasma is large compared to
the distance at which an individual particle feels the influence of interacting
particles. This distance is called the Debye length, λ D.

In a plasma, a single particle that travels has a cloud of oppositely

charged particles surrounding it. The effect of this cloud is to reduce the
range of its usual Coulomb potential (Vc α 1, r is the characteristic of
distance from a charge) by r
-r
V = Vc e /λ D

V is called the screened potential and λ D which measures the range of the
potential is the Debye length

λ D = εoKT ½

nee2

4
 where εo is the permittivity constant for free space, k is Boltzmann’s
constant, T is the ionized gas temperature, ne is the electron density and e the
electronic charge.

Due to the reduction in the range of the potential, individual interactions between
charged particles can only occur if they are separated by a distance less than the Debye
length. Thus, if, due to random thermal motions, there are microscopic fluctuations in the
number of charged particles lying within the Debye sphere (volume = (4/3) π λ D3)
surrounding a given particle, then this particle feels them and is influenced by these
individual interactions. It is not influenced by fluctuations which occur outside the
Debye sphere.

With the above definition, plasmas include such naturally occurring objects as

(i) The ionosphere, which is a region of partly ionized gas that extends from
about 50 km above the earth to several earth radii and which makes radio
communication possible;

(ii) the hot gas which exists transiently within the channel of a lightning
stroke;

(iii) solar flares, sunspots and all other regions of the sun (including the solar
wind which greatly distorts the earth’s magnetic field at heights greater
than two or three earth radii);

(iv) the Van Allen belts of energetic ionized particles trapped at high altitudes
by the earth’s magnetic field;

(v) the atmosphere and interiors of the majority of stars because of their high
temperature and are almost completely ionized;

(vi) the planetary nebulae and interstellar gas regions.

In addition to these naturally occurring plasmas, we have laboratory plasmas in

the form of flames, glow and arc discharges, and plasmas produced to develop
thermonuclear fusion reactors. When we consider the entirety to the universe as
consisting to some degree or the other ionized gases, then we can say that 99.9% of
all matter is in the fourth state, a state of ionized gases, the plasma state. Figure 3
summarizes the temperature and density values of various plasmas.

5
4. HOW TO PRODUCE PLASMAS

A plasma is a relatively complex object of study since it contains a number of

different particle populations, which includes electrons and positive ions, often neutral
atoms in their ground or excited states and also negative ions.

In order to produce a laboratory plasma it is necessary to free electrons that are

normally bound into atoms. A sufficient amount of energy supplied to a neutral molecule
will free these electrons. This energy ordinarily emanates from collisions of one sort or
another. The energy required for single ionization of typical atoms is shown in Table 2.

What happens when a neutral gas is progressively heated from room temperature?
The first thing that happens is that molecules dissociate into their constituent atoms. On
the addition of more energy the random motion of the atoms becomes more rapid and the
collisions between them more violent. Ionization occurs where one of the outer electrons
of an atom is removed leaving behind a positively charged ion. At a sufficiently high
temperature, the gas is no longer composed of just neutral particles but contains both
positive and free electrons. Thus the number of ions and electrons in the gas increases
very rapidly with increasing temperature.

The process of thermal ionization accounts for many astrophysical plasmas, but it
is a relatively uncommon way of preparing laboratory plasmas. Usually a laboratory
plasma is prepared by using a gas discharge. A notable feature of gas discharges is that
the electron temperature is almost always much higher than the temperature of the heavy
particles.

5. FUSION POWER

Deuterium is one of the heavy isotopes of hydrogen. The oceans contain vast
supplies of this most powerful fuel known, enough to supply the world’s energy needs for
several hundred million years.

The release of this vast store of energy requires the heating of the fuel to a
temperature of approximately 108 oK (~ 100 million oC). The resulting thermonuclear
fusion reactions convert nuclear energy into kinetic energy of the reaction products,
which may then be converted into electricity or used to generate hydrogen as an auxiliary
chemical source of energy. The vast release of fusion power has already been exhibited
in 1952 during the first thermonuclear explosion.

Let us consider the basic physics of the fuel, which at these high temperatures, is
a plasma.

The sun is the best example of a fusion reactor. There, the nuclear energy is
released in the fusion of hydrogen nuclei to form helium. These reactions, however, are

6
too slow to be used in the fusion reactor. Table 4 lists the different fusion reactions. The
first three are regarded as potentially useful in full-scale fusion reactors, due to the low
values of threshold energy for fusion.

The deuterium (D) – tritium (T) reaction has been considered particularly
attractive because this mixture has the lowest threshold energy (or the lowest ignition
temperature ~ 4 x 107oC). Model reactor systems using this fuel cycle will therefore use a
50/50 mixture of D and T. Tritium is not a naturally occurring isotope (except trace
quantities) and so must be bred in the reactor from lithium. The tritium breeding
reactions
6
Li + 'n → 4He + 3H + 14.8 MeV*
7
Li + 'n → 4He + 3H + 'n – 2.47 MeV

are to be carried out in a lithium-bearing blanket which surrounds the D-T plasma.
The first reaction represents the capture of slow neutrons. The second reaction represents
inelastic scattering of fast neutrons followed by subsequent decay of 7Li into tritons and
α -particles. The D-D and D-3He fuel cycles will require very significant advances in
technology, and will require a time scale of between 50-100 years or more for their
developments although these cycles are environmentally more attractive.

The reaction will come about if the particles attain energies of the order of 10
KeV. This is sufficient to overcome the Coulombic forces of the nuclei. Even at these
energies, only a very small fraction of the collisions results in a nuclear reaction. To
extract useful energy from the fusion reaction, there are two basic requirements that must
be met:

1) The fuel must be heated to a very high temperature to reach the desired
particle energies. For the D-T cycle, the temperature is about 10 8oK or 10
times the temperature at the center of the sun. At such high temperature, the
atoms of the fuel, which of course are in a gaseous state, are all ionized.

2) To enable the reactions to yield a net gain in energy, the particles must be
confined for a sufficiently long time. The energy released can then be used to
assist in sustaining the required high temperature.

The necessary minimum confinement time, τ , that must be achieved is

approximately given by the Lawson criterion:

nι ∼ 1020m-3 s, n is the particle density in m-3.

__________________
* 1 eV = 1.6 x 10-19 joule, 1 MeV = 106 eV, 1 KeV = 103 eV.

7
Figure 6 shows values of nτ satisfying the Lawson criterion for D-T and D-D reactions
as functions of temperature.

The demonstration of scientific feasibility of the fusion reactor concept thus

requires the achievement of a plasma temperature of ∼ 108 0K and a confinement time
which satisfies the Lawson criterion; plasma densities in the various proposed reactor
systems ranges from 1020m-3 to 5 x 1032m-3, with corresponding minimum confinement
times in the range 1 s to 0.2 x 10-12s.

The achievement of the thermonuclear reactor conditions can be classified in

terms of the method used to confine the plasma. There are two approaches-magnetic
confinement and inertial confinement. Other alternative paths to fusion have been
proposed namely: spherical torus, the stellarator, the reversed-field pinch, the spheromak
and field-reversed configurations. We shall consider only the two major approaches
which todate are hearing fusion conditions from various experimental facilities.

6. MAGNETIC CONTAINMENT

In magnetic containment the plasma is confined by a suitably shaped magnetic

field. As the temperature of the plasma increases, confinement improves because the
particles are “tied” to the magnetic field lines and collisions are less frequent than at
lower temperatures causing the particles to be less scattered away from the reaction
region.

The concept of “magnetic pressure” is useful. The plasma kinetic pressure (n kT)
is balanced by the magnetic pressure (B2/2 µ o). For the case of straight magnetic field
lines in the equilibrium situation the sum of these two pressures is constant. For
confinement, the plasma pressure must be less than the magnetic field pressure and the
ratio

β = n k T < 1.
B2/2 µ o

For example, a plasma with total particle density (ions and electrons) of 2 x 1020m-3 and T
= 108 K, a B = 1.2 Tesla (1 Tesla = 104 gauss) is required to achieve a β < 1. Some
proposed systems have β as low as 0.1, with corresponding confinement fields of 10-15
Teslas.

Table 5 shows the classifications of the various magnetic confinement schemes

according to the values of β and into closed field configurations, in which the field lines
remain within the plasma volume, and open field configurations, in which they do not.

8
Examples of magnetic containment systems:

1) Pinches – one of the simplest approaches to fusion is the Z-pinch. In the

linear version (see Fig. 7 (a)), a large rapidly-rising current is carried by the
plasma, and this current alone serves to heat and confine it.

The plasma current (jz) interacts with the field produced by that
current (Bθ ) to give a radial force that drives the current-carrying plasma,
rapidly increases, raising its temperature and pressure. Equilibrium is
reached when the pressure of the Bθ - field balances the increased plasma
pressure.

This system, however, is beset with unstable, small non-uniformities

to produce regions of weak confinement and stability has to be sought
through the addition of a suitable axial magnetic field, and usually
conducting vessel walls.

In a θ -pinch, the directions of field and current are interchanged

(see Fig. 7 (b)). Here, the current is circumferential and is induced in the
plasma by an external circuit and interacts with the resulting Bz field to
produce a radial compression.

Straight pinch operating at density of ∼ 1022m-3 is not likely a good

candidate for a fusion reactor system: particle losses at the ends keep the
confinement time well below the required values (see Figure 6), except for
unreasonably long machines (∼ 2 km). Experimental and theoretical work is
in progress to investigate the characteristics of pinches in toroidal geometry.

2) Magnetic mirrors – the end losses of the open magnetic field configuration
can be reduced by strengthening the magnetic field at the ends. The best
example of such an approach is the magnetic field mirror (see Fig. 7c)) (or
the magnetic bottle).

The plasma particles are reflected by the mirrors and hence prevented
from escaping out the end. More accurately, some of the particles are
trapped while others escape; the magnetic mirror trap is somewhat leaky.
For the simple magnetic mirror, the plasma confined is grossly unstable and a
more complex field configuration is required to achieve stability.

Auxiliary heating of the plasma is done commonly by energetic particle

injection, radio-frequency heating, using one of the many natural frequencies
of the plasma, and adiabatic compression by a slowly-rising magnetic field.

3) Tokamak – One conceptually simple method for confining plasmas is the

tokamak. In a tokamak the plasma is confined in a toroidal vacuum chamber
by a strong magnetic field running the long way around the torus together

9
 with a weaker field produced by a current flowing through the ring of plasma
itself (see Fig. 7 (d)). A small vertical magnetic field serves to maintain the
position of the plasma ring against inductive and kinetic expansion forces.
The plasma current is induced by an external magnetic field, the plasma
acting as a single-turn secondary winding of a transformer, and heats the
plasma resistively. This is known as ohmic heating. To bring the plasma to
thermonuclear temperatures requires some supplementary heating though.
Some of these are big neutral beam injection, ion cyclotron resonance
frequency and radio frequency.

7. INERTIAL CONFINEMENT

The Lawson criterion allows a great variety of approaches to the fusion reactor. In
the extreme limit where n is very high and τ is very small, we have the approach which
relies only on the inertia of the plasma particles to keep them in the reaction zone for the
required time.

Consider a solid D-T mixture of particles at normal densities (∼ 5 x 1028m-3) at a

temperature of 10 KeV*. The Lawson criterion requires τ ∼ 10-8 s. The rate of
expansion may be taken as the speed of sound. This time τ implies a radius of about
10-2 m. The energy required to heat the fuel, n kT x V, is 3 x 108 J. Since this energy
must be delivered in a time less than 10-8s the power required is at least 3 x 1016W!

This indicates clearly that the fuel must be compressed, so as to reduce τ and
hence the power input required. This energy requirement is reduced to ∼ 10-100 KJ with
typical conditions of compression ratios (∼ 104 giving mass densities ∼ 2 x 106 kg cm-3).

For the achievement of the required power inputs, experiments on high power
lasers and high current ion or electron beams are being done.

8. PRESENT STATUS OF THE FUSION RESEARCH PROGRAM

We can briefly summarize the situation presently for each of the different
approaches to fusion.

1) Tokamak experiements – Recent works on tokamaks have reduced many of the

effects of impurities and macroscopic instabilities that limited the performance
of earlier tokamaks. Neutral-beam injection and other auxiliary heating methods

__________________
* 1 eV = 11600 oK

10
 have also made considerable strides towards the attainment of the required
temperature. We note that the performance of a fusion device is measured by
the parameters ion temperature Ti, confinement time τ and plasma density n.
New records have been set for these parameters. These values are approaching
those needed for fusion reactors (nτ ∼ 1020 m-3 sec, Ti ∼ 10 KeV).

For more than 30 years the improvement in experimental capabilities and physical
understanding of tokamak plasmas has been remarkably steady. The product of n τ e Ti
which measures the approach to reactor conditions has increased by a factor of more than
a hundred in the past decade. The highest value was obtained in the Japan Torus (JT-60)
facility, that is, 1.21x1021 KeV s m-3. A picture of JT-60 is shown in the Figure.

The fusion amplification factor Q DT which is the projected ratio of D-T fusion
power to heating process for some experimental facilities is near “breakeven” condition
(i.e., QDT ∼ 1). For JT-GO, the Princeton tokamak TFTR and the Joint European Torus
(JET), the respective QDT results are 0.6, 0.5 and between 0.8 to 0.9. Ion temperatures Ti
reached in JT-60 is 41 KeV while at the TFTR, 44 KeV. The highest ratio of plasma
pressure to magnetic field pressure, β , was obtained in the machine DIII-D of General
Atomics in San Diego, California with β = 10%. These results combined with previous
tokamak results, extrapolate favorably to larger tokamak experiments and to a tokamak
fusion reactor. Figure 8 shows the plot of ion temperatures and Lawson numbers
achieved in recent experiments.

As the heating and confinement in tokamaks has progressed, increasing attention has
been directed towards the broader questions of engineering and economic feasibility of
tokamak fusion reactors. One key issue for economic feasibility has been the efficiency
with which the tokamak uses the field produced by the toroidal coils. One measure of
this efficiency is the parameter β , the ratio of the plasma pressure to the energy density
of the magnetic field. Values of β ∼ 5-10% are considered appropriate for a tokamak
reactor. Hence experimental as well as theoretical investigations have been much
directed to optimizing β and determining the fundamental limitation of β . One recent
encouraging trend is the attainment of favorable energy confinement and relatively high
β -values in tokamaks with modest toroidal fields. Neutral-beam injection has proved to
be effective in achieving higher β by increasing the input power.

Achieving average β -value of 5-10% is a critical step in demonstrating the viability

of relatively compact tokamak reactors with relatively low toroidal fields.

Despite these favorable strides, a number of problems remain such as:

1) the build-up of impurities in the plasma during pulses with high-power wall
loading and longer than about 10 s:

11
 2) the development of superconducting coils for generating the magnetic field (∼
10 T);
3) developing viable refuelling schemes, such as pellet injectors with understanding
and decreasing the flow of energy and particles out of the plasma.

The successful demonstration of a fusion reactor will also require the solution of
engineering problems involving the reliability of components, remote handling of parts,
etc.

Large-scale machines completed in the 1980’s are mostly of the tokamak type: in
Europe (JET), in Japan (JT-60) as shown in Photo 3, in the U.S.S.R. (T-15) and in the
U.S. (TFTR). Typical parameters are:

plasma current ∼ 2-6 MA

plasma temperature ∼ 5-10 KeV
plasma density ∼ 2-10 x 1019 m-3
confinement time ∼ 0.2 – 1 s.

The alternative magnetic configurations are still in the running for commercial
fusion reactor development. The concepts include: long-linear systems, surface-field
systems, high-density systems, particle rings, mirror-torus hybrids, and reversed-field
systems. One fact to consider about these alternative fusion system is that it might
require about 100 years more for their development on a commercial scale.

Progress in laser fusion, which is at a more advanced stage than the inertial
confinement scheme employing particle beams, has been spectacular over the past few
years.

Compression factors in the range 10-100 have been reported yielding output of 106-
107 neutrons per pulse Neodynium-glass lasers of 10 KJ energy are constructed at
Livermore, Osaka, and Lebedev Institutes for testing further the laser fusion concept,
which has also been relying heavily on computer simulation. Figure 9 shows the
progress using lasers.

9. FUSION REACTOR SYSTEM

Construction of large magnetic confinement and inertial systems have brought

focus on the technological aspects of the fusion reactor which have taken tangible form as
experimental rigs of fusion reactor systems. There are four devices under experiment to
date: JET, JT-60, TFTR, D-III-D. Laser systems include those of NOVA and
GEKKOXII, in the US and Japan, respectively.

The release of energy in a fusion reactor depends on the fuel used. Neutrons, for
example, which are produced at different rates by various fusion reactions, can cross

12
magnetic fields and penetrate matter quite easily. In the D-T fuel cycle, approximately
80% of its energy is released in the form of highly energetic neutrons. This type of a
reactor could be made to produce electricity by absorbing the neutron energy in a liquid-
lithium shield, circulating liquid lithium to a heat exchanger and then heat water to
produce steam and drive a conventional steam-generator electric power plant. Figure 10
shows a conceptual fusion reactor design. This could also lead to techniques for
converting the world’s reserves of U238 and Th232 for suitable fuels for fission reactors.

Reactors based on the tokamak are described by the following main features, and
their associated technological problems:

1) The vacuum vessel wall must have high resistance to damage from the intense
neutron flux, and heat radiation and energetic particles escaping from the
plasma; the radioactivity induced in the wall materials should preferably have a
short half-life. The “first wall” presents one of several major materials
problems.

2) Tritium breeding, through neutron-induced reactions in lithium, can be

combined successfully with the first loop of the heat exchanger, as shown in the
figure. The choice of shield material should be between lithium metal and
“flibe” – a lithium beryllium flouride salt. Experiments at Julich, West
Germany are looking at problems on plasma-wall interactions.

3) The complexity of the design can be seen if we look closer at the radial cross-
section of the reactor as shown by the Princeton Tokamak reactor (see Fig. 11).
A divertor is required involving a specially-shaped magnetic field to keep
impurities in the plasma at an acceptably low level.

4) Several radiation and biological shields will be required.

5) If the required magnetic field is ∼ 10 T, the magnetic field coils will be

superconductors – lower fields would permit the use of normal conductors,
cooled to liquid-nitrogen temperature to reduce ohmic losses. There do not
seem to be any technological problem here, but the cost of the conductors is
important in the overall economy of the system.

The laser fusion reactor systems are conceptually much simpler than the magnetic
confinement systems. The main difference is that laser fusion reactor systems make use
of inertial confinement instead of magnetic confinement. Auxiliary heating is done by
heating injected pellets with laser beams. The specifications for this type of fusion
reactor formidable:

Total beam energy reaching pellet

(16 separate CO2 laser amplifiers) 1MJ
Repetition rate 30 Hz
Laser efficiency 7%

13
 Pulse width 1 ns
Net output 1000 MW (e).
10. ENVIRONMENTAL AND RESOURCES ASPECT

World reserves of lithium are estimated to correspond to several thousand times the
present annual world consumption. Land-based lithium reserves are about 107 tonnes and
would yield roughly 1000 Q (1.85 x 1014 barrels of oil). The deuterium of the oceans,
converted to helium, would release 3 x 1010 Q of heat (5.55 x 1021 barrels of oil). This
much energy is really tremendous. The projected demand for lithium and deuterium in
other applications appears to be insignificant.

The problem of controlled nuclear fusion does not lie in the estimated magnitude of
the fuel source, or in the fuel costs. Lithium for example would be at a contributing cost
of 0.002 cents per Kwh(e) to the cost of electricity. The extraction of deuterium from sea
water contributes about 0.003 cents /Kwh(e) to the fuel cost. Deuterium also is cheap in
terms of transportation cost: 1kg of D has the energy equivalent of 12 x 10 6 tonnes of
coal. The total busbar power cost for the Princeton design is ∼ 0.015 c/KwH(e), with a
capital cost of approximately US$600/Kw(e) at 1974 prices or over US$1500 /Kw(e)
today.

Projected waste from the fusion reactor appears to be much less severe to the
environment than those associated with the fission reactor. Notable of these
environmental advantages are:

1) Fusion power (as well as fission plants) require no burning of the world’s
oxygen or hydrocarbons resources hence no releases of carbon dioxide or
other combustion products to the atmosphere.

2) No radioactive wastes are produced as a result of the fuel cycles

contemplated. The reaction products consist of neutrons, non-radioactive
helium and hydrogen nuclei, and radio-active tritium nuclei which emits low-
energy ionizing radiations releasing β particles (electrons); but tritium is a
fusion fuel which could be returned and burned in the system. Tritium has a
half-life of 12.3 years. A 2000 MW(e) reactor will have a typical tritium
inventory of 260 gm/ day in the blanket. The reactor design must provide for
no more than the acceptable release of tritium in the case of a major accident
(like a plane crash).

3) Thermal pollution will be similar to that for existing power plants.

4) The rate of nuclear reactions is easily controlled by controlling the plasma

temperature; thus the reaction can be quenched, so there is no danger of it
running out of control; there is no “critical mass” required for fusion. In the
tenuous plasma there is never enough fuel at any one time to cause a nuclear
runaway or inadvertent criticality.

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 5) The real “waste” might come from the structural materials which deteriorate
as a result of the intense neutron bombardment (about 4 times as many
neutrons as a fission reactor yields). Such a neutron flux would make all the
structural materials of the reactor intensely radioactive. Careful selection of
materials with short induced radioactive half-lives will greatly reduce this
problem.

The greatest potential advantages of fusion occur with advanced fuel cycles-often
referred to as dream cycles:

a) 2D + 2D → 3He + n + 3.2 MeV, most plentiful

b) 2D + 3H → 3He + 4He + 4.0 MeV which produces charged particles only;
c) 3H + 3H → which burns clean but made by fusion of lithium and hydrogen.
The fuel resource would be limited by the supply of lithium;
d) H + B → abundant fuels which produce only charged particles.
1 11

Fusion with these fuels could truly be a clean process with essentially infinite
supplies of fuel. Present researches around the world is directed toward fusion with D
and T as fuel. The reaction is shown in Figure 12.

According to planning guidelines as to the pathway to a tokamak fusion reactor, the

big Princeton tokamak goes to a prototype to attain conditions for self-ignition (cost ∼
U.S.$400 million), an engineering reactor to do materials tests (cost cost ∼ U.S.$500
million) and at least one experimental power reactor to generate tens of megawatts of
electricity (cost ∼ U.S.$800 million). These are seen as necessary steps before a
commercial reactor can be built. The total program cost to get a machine that generates
about 10 MW ∼ U.S.$9.2 billion, in addition to U.S.$800 million. In view of the R&D
cost involved, the international fusion community through the auspices of the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are setting their acts together. The
cooperation involves ITER, which in Latin means the way of the stars, but the acronym
stands for International Toroidal Experimental Reactor. As long as fusion power
promises to be the ultimate energy source for the future, the above cost in reality would
be still marginal. The cooperative effort of the international community in ITER brings
us closer to the realization of fusion as energy for the future.

11. CONCLUDING REMARKS

The fusion reactor offers the potential of an essentially unlimited supply of cheap
energy. The records obtained in tokamaks extrapolate that breakeven conditions will be
attained. Hopefully also, the difficult engineering and technical problems will find
solutions. Recent progress in tokamaks has demonstrated the “scientific feasibility” of
fusion and a prototype reactor will be operational with the commissioning of ITER.
This is the ultimate goal of fusion research. In the words of the great Russian plasma

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physicist, L. Artsimovich: “There can be scarcely any doubt that the problem of
controlled fusion will eventually be solved… We shall have to leave it with an ideal
vacuum technology, with the magnetic configurations worked out, with an accurate
geometry for the lines of force and with programmed conditions for the electrical
contours, bearing in our hands the high temperature plasma, stable and in repose, pure as
a concept in theoretical physics when it is still unsullied by contact with experimental
fact.”

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