# Presentation: 690593

## Fusion

- Celestial to Earthbound

## A Comparison

- 1 gallon of seawater=300 gallons of gasoline
- 82,459,000 barrels per day in 2005 -> 1,583,212,800 gallons of gasoline
- 5,277,376 gallons of ocean water burned in a fusion reactor= 1,583,212,800 gallons of gasoline
- 5,277,376 gallons of ocean water=1.5E-12% of the total volume of the ocean
- Only .015% of naturally occurring hydrogen is deuterium

## How Does Fusion Occur?

- Two lighter nuclei combine to form a heavier nucleus coupled with a release of energy
- Coulomb Barrier
- Heat
- Fuel Confinement
- Self Sustaining?
- Lawson Criteria

## The Sun

- Proton-Proton chain
- Beginnings
- 1H + 1H → 2H + _[e](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron)_+ + _[ν](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrino)__[e](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrino)_
- 2H + 1H → 3He + _[γ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_ray)_
- pp1
- 3He +3He → 4He + 1H + 1H
- pp2
- 3He + 4He→7_[Be](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryllium)_ + _[γ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_ray)_
- 7Be + e−→7_[Li](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium)_ + _[νe](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrino)_
- 7Li + 1H→4He + 4He
- pp3
- 3He + 4He→7Be + _[γ](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma_ray)_
- 7Be + 1H→8_[B](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boron)_ + γ
- 8B→8Be + e+ + _[νe](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrino)_
- 8Be↔4He + 4He

## The Sun (cont’d)

- Carbon-Nitrogen-Oxygen chain
- 12C + 1H→13N + γ
- 13N→13C + e+ + νe
- 13C + 1H→14N + γ
- 14N + 1H→15O
- 15O→15N + e+ + νe
- 15N + 1H→12C + 4He

## Earthbound?

- Can’t use gravitational force
- Must use electromagnetic force
- Magnetic confinement
- Limited in reaction choice
- Exothermic
- Low Z nuclei
- Ignition Energy
- D-T reaction=100 million degrees Celsius

## The Reactions

- (1)D+T→ 4He(3.5 MeV)+ n(14.1 MeV)
- (2i)D+D→ T(1.01 MeV)+ p(3.02 MeV)    *50%*
- (2ii)   → 3He(0.82 MeV)+ n(2.45 MeV)    *50%*
- (3)D+3He→ 4He(3.6 MeV)+ p(14.7 MeV)
- (4)T+T→ 4He +2 n+ 11.3 MeV
- (5)3He+3He→ 4He +2 p+ 12.9 MeV
- (6i)3He+T→ 4He + p +n+ 12.1 MeV *51%*
- (6ii)   → 4He(4.8 MeV)+ D(9.5 MeV)    *43%*
- (6iii)   → 4He(0.5 MeV)+ n(1.9 MeV)+p(11.9 MeV) *6%*
- (7)D+6Li→2 4He+ 22.4 MeV
- (8)p+6Li→ 4He(1.7 MeV)+ 3He(2.3 MeV)
- (9)3He+6Li→2 4He + p+ 16.9 MeV

## First Steps

- Hydrogen Bomb
- Radio-frequency heating
- Linear Confinement
- Pinch effect
- Magnetic Mirrors
- Toroid
- Stellarator

## Stellarator

## Problems

- Plasma Instability
- Heat Loss

## Tokamak

- Large toroid that produces a toroidal magnetic field
- Charged plasma also creates magnetic field
- Large external shaping magnets
- Name derived from Russian: toroidalnaya kamera magnitnaya katushka

## Tokamak (cont’d)

## Tokamak (cont’d)

## Tokamak (cont’d)

## The Big Three

- TFTR (tokamak fusion test reactor located at Princeton University)
- JET (joint European torus, located in Culham, UK as part of a European collaboration)
- JT-60 (located in Japan)

## Results

- JET reactor produces 16MW of fusion energy
- TFTR and JT-60 produce around 10.7 MW of fusion energy
- Q values of 0.6-0.9

## The Future

- ITER (international thermonuclear experiment reactor)
- Goals
- 400MW fusion energy
- Q value of around 10

## Considerations

- Safety
- Amount of fuel in reactor
- Reaction sustainability
- Waste
- Fuel

## Sources

- 1)http://www.bp.com
- 2)Fowler, T. K. *The Fusion Quest, *The Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore and London, 1997
- 3)Braams, C.M.; Stott, P.E. *Nuclear Fusion: Half a Century of Magnetic Confinement Fusion Research*; Institute of Physics Publishing: Bristol and Philadelphia, 2002
- 4)http://www.jet.efda.org/pages/focus/006heating/7c-t.jpg
- 5)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITER
- 6)http://www.lateralscience.co.uk/latscipics/stellarator.jpg