There are great challenges that are associated with

fusion, but there are also very large possible benefits

A coal power plant uses 9000 tons of coal a day to
produce 1000 MW and emits many pollutants
including 30,000 tons of carbon dioxide
A fusion power plant would use 5.35Kg of deuterium
and tritium for the same amount of power and would
emit only 4.28Kg of helium
The amount of lithium contained in a single computer
battery along with about half of a bathtub full of
water can produce as much energy as 40 tons of coal
 Deuterium ------------
In ocean water---- 1 D atom for every 6500 ordinary H
atom in sea water.

Tritium is produced in nuclear reactors by neutron

activation of lithium-6.

Tritium is also produced in heavy water moderated

reactors whenever a deuterium nucleus captures a
neutron.
Tritium is an uncommon product of the nuclear
fission of U-235, Pu-239 and U-233, with a production of
about one per each 10,000 fissions
 The electrostatic force between the
positively charged nuclei is repulsive, but
when the separation is small enough, the
attractive nuclear force is stronger.

Therefore the prerequisite for fusion is

that the nuclei have kinetic energy that
they can approach each other despite the
electrostatic repulsion.
 Lawson criterion, first derived on fusion reactors
(initially classified) by John D. Lawson in 1955 and
published in 1957.
Is an important general measure of a system that
defines the conditions needed for a fusion reactor to
reach ignition, that is, the heating of the plasma by
the products of the fusion reactions is sufficient to
maintain the temperature of the plasma against all
losses without external power input.
Breakeven is the point in which the energy supplied
equals or exceeds the energy output
Ignition is the point in which the energy from fusion
supplies the heat necessary to sustain the reaction
 Asoriginally formulated the Lawson criterion
gives a minimum required value for the
product of the plasma (electron)
density ne and the "energy confinement
time" .

Later analysis suggested that a more

useful figure of merit is the "triple product" of
density, confinement time, and plasma
temperature T. The triple product also has a
minimum required value, and the name
"Lawson criterion" often refers to this
inequality
Minimum value of (electron density The fusion triple product
* energy confinement time) required condition for three fusion
for self-heating, for three fusion reactions.
reactions. For DT, neE minimizes
near the temperature 25 keV (300
million kelvins).
 In terms of reaction rate. (m3/s), break even condition.

For a D-T plasma at 100million oC the break even condition is

around 6 X1013 sec/cm3
 Why?
Even if you manage to generate extremely high
temperatures needed to initiate nuclear fusion reactions, there is
no material container which can withstand such temperatures.

One solution to this dilemma is to keep the hot plasma out of

contact with the walls of its container by keeping it moving in
circular or helical paths by means of the magnetic force on
charged particles.

1. Magnetic confinement.(1015 particle density, time 0.1sec)

2. Inertial confinement.(1026 nuclei/cm3, 10-12 sec)
 The motion of electrically charged particles is constrained by
a magnetic field.
In the absence of the magnetic field heated particles will move in
straight lines in random directions, quickly striking the walls of the
container. When a uniform magnetic field is applied the charged
particles will follow spiral paths encircling the magnetic lines of
force. The motion of the particles across the magnetic field lines is
restricted and so is the access to the walls of the container.
 Magnetic fields

Toroidal field

Poloidal field
1. Laser beams or laser-produced X-rays rapidly heat the surface of the
fusion target, forming a surrounding plasma envelope.(ablation)
2. Fuel is compressed by the rocket-like blowoff of the hot surface
material.(implosion)
3. During the final part of the capsule implosion, the fuel core reaches 20
times the density of lead and ignites at 100,000,000 C.
4. Thermonuclear burn spreads rapidly through the compressed fuel,
yielding many times the input energy.
 In the inertial confinement fusion method a very
large plasma density (more than twenty times the
density of lead) is attained at the expense of the
energy confinement time.
In the magnetic confinement method an energy
confinement time longer than one second is attained
in very low density plasmas.
A density of solid D-T (0.2 g/cm) would require an
implausibly large laser pulse energy. Assuming the
energy required scales with the mass of the fusion
plasma, compressing the fuel to 103 or 104 times
solid density would reduce the energy required by
a factor of 106 or 108, bringing it into a realistic
range.
 With a compression by 103, the compressed
density will be 200 g/cm, and the compressed
radius can be as small as 0.05 mm. The radius of
the fuel before compression would be 0.5 mm.
The initial pellet will be perhaps twice as large
since most of the mass will be ablated during the
compression.

The optimum temperature for inertial

confinement fusion is that which maximizes
<v>/T 3/2, which is slightly higher than the
optimum temperature for magnetic confinement.
 Magnetic
confinement fusion..
Tokamak reactor.

Inertial confinement fusion


 Tokamak reactor