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Fusion breeding for mid-century, sustainable, carbon free power

Authors :
Wallace Manheimer
Source :
Heliyon, Vol 6, Iss 9, Pp e04923- (2020)
Publication Year :
2020
Publisher :
Elsevier, 2020.

Abstract

Fusion has often been billed as the ultimate 21st century sustainable energy source. However, not only is the pace of the program glacially slow, it seems to recede further and further into the future. One way to speed up the delivery of economical fusion could be to change the objective from pure fusion, that is the use of the 14 MeV fusion neutron's kinetic energy to boil water; to fusion breeding, that is the former, but also making use of the neutrons 'potential energy' to breed ten times its energy in the form of nuclear fuel to be burned in separate reactors. The requirements of a fusion breeder are greatly relaxed from the requirements for a pure fusion reactor. For instance, ITER, the large tokamak being built by an international consortium in France, could well be the basis of an economical fusion breeder, but would have to clear many more scientific and technical hurdles before it could become the basis for a pure fusion reactor; hurdles it may or may not be able to clear. Even if it clears them, ITER is unlikely to evolve into an economical pure fusion power supply this century. A fusion breeder as could be alternate approach to speed the delivery of economical of fusion power.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
24058440
Volume :
6
Issue :
9
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Heliyon
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.3b57647626b441d48d098f36ac7e0323
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04923