America's True Energy Independence Resides in Nuclear-Fusion

The New Media Journal ^ | March 24, 2007 | Rene Guerra

[Panchito42]

Nuclear-fusion is the source of energy that could guarantee America’s true energy independence for the present as well as the future. ... Fusion is the awesome process that powers the sun and all other stars in the universe. Compared to fusion, in terms of power yield, all other sources of energy, with no exception, are mere morsels.

[burzum]

This assumes that we be able to sustain reactions that actually produce more energy than it takes to initiate them.

That was done in 1996 (I believe). Currently they are trying to scale up the reactors to get a reactor gain of about 30 or more so that they become economical. They are also trying to eliminate some of the processes where the plasma 'corrodes' the chamber.

[coloradan]

Tritium is also a byproduct of neutron capture by both of Li-6 and Li-7, which might be chosen for the cooling system specifically for the purpose of tritium generation (which means that an operating plant would have lots of tritium around to keep track of). You’re right though, D-D fusion is harder to do.

[coloradan]

Incidentally, neutrons are also a byproduct of fusion, and they’re even hotter than tritium is, halflife ~ 12 mins.

[rednesss]

Well half-life aside, you wouldn’t want to get in the way of a large neutron flux. Just as important as how short a half-life is, is the method of decay. Alpha, gamma, beta +/-, various particle emissions/captures.

[DrDavid]

I was under the impression that the early break even reactions where just short runs and not viable industrial processes.

[RightWhale]

http://blogs.knoxnews.com/knx/munger/2008/02/iter_situation_how_bad_will_it.html

If there’s no ITER commitment by Congress in the 2009 budget, the United States will basically default on its partnership and also be subject to financial penalty — somewhere in the range of $750 million in U.S. dollars. That would probably be a nasty little situation in which lawyers from around the globe would have to grapple with the details.

http://www.aaas.org/spp/rd/09pch8.htm

After a significant hit in 2008 that deleted the U.S. contribution to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project, fusion research would total $493 million, up $207 million or 72 percent. The entire increase would go to a $215 million ITER contribution in 2009 on the project now underway in France, after appropriators zeroed out U.S. participation in ITER in 2008 to preserve funding for domestic fusion programs. The 2008 request would have provided $160 million, and DOE ended up scrounging for $11 million to keep U.S. participation alive. Domestic fusion projects in New Jersey, California, and Massachusetts would mostly stay even in 2009 after an increase in 2008.

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DoE is about $10 billion a year, little of it in energy.