Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T01:09:32.057Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Nuclear Fusion Power and the Environment

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

Robert L. Hirsch  and
William L. R. Rice
Robert L. Hirsch
Affiliation:
Director, and Special Assistant to the Director, respectively, Division of Controlled Thermonuclear Research, United States Atomic Energy Commission, Washington, D.C. 20545, U.S.A.
William L. R. Rice
Affiliation:
Director, and Special Assistant to the Director, respectively, Division of Controlled Thermonuclear Research, United States Atomic Energy Commission, Washington, D.C. 20545, U.S.A.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The physics problems remaining to be solved to achieve practical fusion power by magnetic confinement techniques are believed to be well posed and soluble. A programme plan recently developed in the United States calls for progressively larger plasma confinement experiments to address these physics questions in line with a serious programme in fusion power engineering. Implementation of the plan is expected to lead to the first production of power from a deuterium–tritium-fuelled system in 1980. Thereafter, three progressively larger experimental electrical power reactors are planned, leading to fusion power commercialization in the later 1990s.

The environmental characteristics of fusion reactors have been estimated by analyzing conceptual reactor designs. It is projected that the only volatile radioactive material in a fusion power-plant will be the tritium fuel. Analyses indicate that tritium leakage can be held to very low levels and accordingly should not pose a significant environmental hazard.

Careful selection of the materials of construction of a fusion reactor core will minimize radioactivity induced by neutron activation. This activity will be nonvolatile, and it can be isolated from the environment by the use of existing techniques. Because this induced activity is short-lived, it does not represent a long-term storage problem.

Anticipated thermal efficiencies of fusion powerplants range from present-day levels (30–40%) using standard conversion systems to about 50% when more exotic techniques (such as liquid-metal topping cycles) are utilized.

Type
Main Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 1 , Issue 4 , Winter 1974 , pp. 251 - 262
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 1974

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Dawson, J. M., Furth, H. P. & Tenney, F. H. (1971). Production of thermonuclear power by non-Maxwellian ions in a closed magnetic field configuration. Phys. Rev. Letters, 26, p. 1156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gough, W. C. (1973). Fusion Reactors Systems Studies Review Meeting, WASH-1278 (19–20 September). Division of Controlled Thermonuclear Research, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, Washington, D.C.: ii + 254 pp.Google Scholar
Gough, W. C. & Eastlund, B. J. (1971). The prospects of fusion power. Scientific American, 224 (2), pp. 50–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansborough, L. D. & Draper, E. L. Jr, (1973). Overall Tritium Considerations for Controlled Thermonuclear Reactors. Technical Report ESL-10, Energy Systems Laboratories, University of Texas at Austin, Texas: xi + 154 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
Holdren, J. P. (1971). Adequacy of Lithium Supplies as a Fusion Energy Source. Report UCID-15953, Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, University of California, Livermore, California: ii + 9 pp.Google Scholar
Jacobs, D. G. (1968) Sources of Tritium and its Behavior Upon Release to the Environment. TID-24635, Clearinghouse for Federal Scientific and Technical Information, National Bureau of Standards, U.S. Department of Commerce, Springfield, Virginia 22151: vi + 90 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jassby, D. L. & Furth, H. P. (1974 a). Fusion-Reaction-Injected and Neutral-Beam-Injected Suprathermal Ions in the Tokamak. TM-271, Plasma Physics Laboratory, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey: 28 pp.Google Scholar
Jassby, D. L. & Furth, H. P. (1974 b). Relaxation of the Break-even Conditions for Fusion Reactors Heated by Reacting Ion Beams. Abstract Submitted for the 22–25 April 1974 Washington Meeting of the American Physical Society (mimeogr.)Google Scholar
Kubo, A. S. & Rose, D. J. (1973). Disposal of Nuclear Wastes. Science, 182, pp. 1205–11.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lawson, J. D. (1957). Some criteria for a power-producing thermonuclear reactor. Proceedings of the Physical Society, 70, Part 1, No. 445 B, pp. 6–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, J. D. (1973). Tritium breeding and direct energy conversion. Pp. 51–90 in The Chemistry of Fusion Technology. Plenum, New York, N.Y.: xiv + 394 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
Moghissi, A. A. & Carter, M. W. (Eds) (1973). Tritium. Messenger Graphics, Phoenix, Arizona: viii + 807 pp.Google ScholarPubMed
Powell, J. R., Miles, F. T., Aronson, A. & Winsche, W. E. (1973 a). Studies of Fusion Reactor Blankets With Minimum Radioactive Inventory and With Tritium Breeding in Solid Lithium Compounds: A Preliminary Report. BNL 18236, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973: i + 127 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Powell, J. R., Salzano, F., Sevian, W., Hoffman, K. & Bezler, P. (1973 b). An Evaluation of the Technical, Economic and Environmental Features of a Synthetic Fuels Economy Based on Fusion Reactors. BNL 18430, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973: ii + 98 pp.Google Scholar
Rhinehammer, T. B. & Lamberoer, P. H. (1973). Tritium Control Technology. WASH-1269, Division of Operational Safety, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, Washington, D.C.: x + 530 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rose, D. J. (1969). Engineering feasibility of controlled fusion. Nuclear Fusion, 9, pp. 183–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (1973). Fusion Power: An Assessment of Ultimate Potential. WASH-1239, Division of Controlled Thermonuclear Research, USAEC, Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.: iii + 62 pp., illustr.Google Scholar
Wolkenhauer, W. C., Leonard, B. R. Jr, & Gore, B. F. (1973). Transmutation of High-level Radioactive Waste with a Controlled Thermonuclear Reactor. BNWL-1772, Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratories, Richland, Washington: vii + 168 pp., illustr.CrossRefGoogle Scholar