Europe puts France up for reactor (world's 1st fusion reactor will cost $5bil, revolutionize energy)

BBC News ^ | Wednesday, 26 November, 2003 | Dr David Whitehouse

[presidio9]

The European Union has chosen France as its preferred location for a nuclear reactor that scientists hope will revolutionise world power production. It will cost billions to build the fusion machine which releases energy in a similar way to the Sun's furnaces.

Scientists say the new reactor will be the first such prototype to give out a lot more power than it consumes.

International partners in the immense engineering project include the US, China, Japan, Russia and Korea.

Well placed

A final decision on the siting of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (Iter) should come in December at a meeting of officials involved in its planning.

The EU candidate, Cadarache, in southeastern France, is likely face stiff competition from Rokkasho in Japan.

The plant, wherever it is constructed, is expected to generate thousands of jobs.

Spain had initially put forward its own choice of Vandellos but then fell in line with its EU partners when research ministers agreed it could host the administrative headquarters for the European arm of the Iter project.

Europe believes it stands a good chance of hosting the fusion plant.

>A recent report, chaired by Sir David King, chief scientific adviser to the UK Government, said "either (European) site would be likely to win the international site selection".

Star power

The Iter project is the latest stage in the decades-long quest to develop fusion power.

In conventional nuclear power plants, heavy atoms are split to release energy. But in a fusion reactor, energy is harnessed by forcing the nuclei of light atoms together - the same process that takes place at the core of the Sun and makes it shine.

Advocates say commercial fusion plants of the future could be cheap to run and environmentally friendly, with much less radioactive waste produced.

However, developing the necessary technology is proving very expensive and time-consuming.

To use fusion reactions as an energy source, it is necessary to heat a gas to temperatures exceeding 100 million Celsius - many times hotter than the centre of the Sun. At these temperatures, the gas becomes a plasma.

Under these conditions, the plasma particles, from deuterium and tritium, fuse to form helium and high speed neutrons.

A commercial power station will use the heat generated by the energetic neutrons, slowed down by a blanket of denser material (lithium), to generate electricity.

The fuels used are virtually inexhaustible. Deuterium and tritium are both isotopes of hydrogen. Deuterium is extracted from water and tritium is manufactured from a light metal, lithium, which is found all over the world.

One kilogram would produce the same amount of energy as 10,000,000 kg of fossil fuel.

Iter would be the world's largest international cooperative research and development project after the International Space Station.

Its goal will be to produce 500 megawatts of fusion power for 500 seconds or longer during each individual fusion experiment and in doing so demonstrate essential technologies for a commercial reactor.

[Aquinasfan]

Wonder what the froggie word for ''boondoggle'' is...

That's what I thought. EU and "boondoggle" kind of go together.

[SAJ]

Provided someone can make a commercially viable technology within, say, the next half-century. Fusion has been posited since at least the late 1940s, with absolutely no practical result to date.

Type I? Type II? Hey, why not just go straight to Dyson spheres and ringworlds? Why fool around?

[Two_Sheds]

Provided someone can make a commercially viable technology within, say, the next half-century. Fusion has been posited since at least the late 1940s, with absolutely no practical result to date.

What do you mean "provided"? You mean, like have someone pull it out of their a$$, so we wouldn't acutally have to expend effort and money to do it?

IOW, I guess it's just too hard, so let's give up. Nice.

[presidio9]

Wonder what the froggie word for ''boondoggle'' is... Please not that this is neither a "French" nor a "EU" project. It is exciting technology and it falls under the jurisdiction of the ITER. I would rather see more private financing of this research, but I am glad to see it moving forward.

[Zathras]

FYI: At the moment, the only way to create a functional fusion reactor is by using some amount of Tritium.
To create Tritium, you need a neutron source (ie fission reactor) and processing is similar to Plutonium (other than the toxic problems).

As they said when they were creating the first H-bomb, "We can create 100 lbs of Pu239 or 100 oz of Tritium."

[ffusco]

"THE OPTION TO OVER-RIDE AUTOMATIC DETONATION EXPIRES IN T-MINUS 5 MINUTES........."

[boris]

"Is this experimental, or has this technology already been demonstrated to work?"

Still experimental; no conclusive demonstrations of "above break-even" to my knowledge.

--Boris

[RightWingAtheist]

somebody is on the edge of fusion power, and the D@mn Luddite moron Democrats won't let us drill in Anwar

As long as they let us drill in this Anwar, I'm happy:

Now that's the type of fusion power I want to be involved with <8-a

[Ichneumon]

Exclusive look at the new technology:

[freeangel]

Perhaps france was chosen because if something goes wrong, well,after all, it is only france and not much worth saving.

[InterceptPoint]

Advocates say commercial fusion plants of the future could be cheap to run and environmentally friendly, with much less radioactive waste produced.

Let me then be the first to predict: The Environmental Wacko Community, AKA the Watermelon Crowd will be violently against it.

They are against all energy production since it is the availabilitiy of energy that produces improvements in the human condition, a movement they are firmly opposed to.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

There's an experimental fusion reactor in the heart of Cambridge, MA and the greenies there are oblivious.

But their safety office has a website, so there's nothing to worry about.

[cogitator]

What about crystallic fusion? (This has been repeatedly described by space ranger Buzz Lightyear and is instrumental to the vibrant economy in sector 12.)

[RightWhale]

Explain this to me

You shifted gears so hard from fusion to oil, like pulling into low gear while doing 100 you gave us whiplash. A single tanker truck of fusion fuel would be equivalent to the energy of ANWR AND Saudi AND Iraq AND Russia AND North Sea AND Gulf of Mexico AND Texas, Louisiana, and California, both oil and natural gas AND all the coal on earth and there is a lot of coal.

[50sDad]

...Comparison made is only political, not scientific. Application problems for fusion on a "local" scale, unless the solution would be electric cars running on regionally produced electricity from fusion power.

[RightWhale]

Oh, okay, the political aspect makes total sense. You know, I'm still steamed that they cancelled the superconducting supercollider even though it was being built in Texas rather than Alaska. It's a definite sign that America lacks the necessary political ingredients to remain pre-eminent in the world in science and technology much longer, or so it has seemed since the end of the Apollo program.

[Old Professer]

Charade.

[Bernard Marx]

You know that we arew footing tem percent of the bill for this, maybe even more?

That's what boggles my mind. Why?

[50sDad]

I am one of those who thinks R&D always pays off. We pi$$ away billions on social programs that don't actually produce any measurable improvement, we pour money down the hole to produce "performance art" that does little more than offend me, and yet we can't get fusion power to work. I am not an "electric car" guy, but if we could run them for a dollar a day from fusion plants, I'd buy one. (And can you imagine the furor in the Mideast if the Shieks were suddenly sitting on worthless and obsolete black goo?)

I still can't decide if we should keep the patent and tell the world to go to hell, or if we should publish the plans on the internet and get the hell out of the way. Hummmmm....

[RightWhale]

America could be so far ahead in almost every area of science and technology that the rest of the world would need to hire scouts to see which way we went. But instead we are keeping just barely ahead. Got to wonder why. Maybe there is a good reason.