From: jcliu@four-lab4.Berkeley.EDU (James C. Liu)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan
Subject: Fusion (was RE:  Plutonium)
Date: 16 Nov 1992 17:56:34 GMT
Organization: UC Berkeley Dept. of Nuclear Engineering
NNTP-Posting-Host: four-lab4.berkeley.edu
Keywords: Japanese/US pursuits in ICF and MCF

In article <1992Nov16.163640.2653@island.COM> fester@island.COM
(Mike Fester) writes:

>You might have a long wait. So far as I am aware, the only 'break-even' tests
>have been done in New Mexico (and BTW, fission and fusion are very different
>technologies).

Are you sure you don't mean Nevada?  The US also 'broke-even' at Bikini
Island...:-).

In terms of 'controlled' thermonuclear reactions (i.e. fusion)  I was at
a June meeting in Boston hosted by the American Nuclear Society with an
embedded topical on Fusion Technology.  Many Nihonjin were there, and we
did karaoke at the Gyosai in Marketplace Square/Fanueil Hall (any MIT
folks familiar with that?)

As for Magnetic confinement, the Japanese are hot on the pursuit of many
revolutionary technologies.  They have their own tokamak (which I
forget the acronym for) but they don't get anywhere the confinement
required for breakeven.  But their purpose is to develop in the long
term, many of the required technologies that will go into MCF reactors,
most importantly, plasma-facing components, low-activation steels,
magnet and magnet cooling technology, and plasma instrumentation.  I was
quite impressed by the tremendous amount of experimental work.

The American authors on the other hand pursued more theoretical work and
numerical simulations in multi-dimension, and had many new develops such
as the possibility of stability and higher magnetic confinement
parameters.  There was quite an obvious distinction between Americans -
theoretical only work, and Japanese - experimental only work.  Both the
US and Japan are big contributors to the ITER (Int'l Thermonuclear
Experimental Reactor).

Japan's research into plasma facing components has resulted in
improvements in their machine-tool technology.  Drill bits and other
tools which have been selectively exposed to plasma can be coated with a
super-hard shell which can improve tool life by over an order of
magnitude.

In the ICF technology (i.e. laser/ ion beam fusion) Japan again is doing
a lot of experimental work.  They have a laser similar to Livermore
Lab's Nova, but not as powerful which they have successfully used to
implode fusion pellets to over 30 times normal density.  They even have
photos.  All their work is unclassified which seemed to bother some of
the Livermore guys who's work is still being done under classified
status.  Again the Japanese are making steady progress in pellet
technology, laser focusing, high speed imaging, instrumentation, and
target physics.  The US has a slight edge in laser power and target
physics knowledge (which is gleened from the underground nuclear tests)
but funding is becoming scarce for ICF work which is still defense
related in many aspects, such as laser and light ion technology, target
physics, pellet fabrication, Tritium use.  Hopefully, under the next
administration, American research in ICF will be declassified to allow
more int'l input into the technology which may bring fusion decades
closer to becoming reality.

My own personal opinion?  MCF or ICF?  ICF is at present more of a
feasibility than MCF in a commercial sense.  Magnetic Fusion energy has
too many engineering difficulties - superconduction magnets, magnet
cooling, heat transfer, plasma impurity control, plasma heating,
structure integrity under magnetic forces, long term radiation
imbrittlement, etc.... ICF is simpler.  Only two technologies need to be
developed...a heavy ion beam driver and target injection technology.
From my own experience and thesis work on ICF, the other mechanical
aspects are entirely possible with current technology.

Jaa, James
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James C. Liu |    KARAOKE Addict!     Karaoke: You're the STAR!!!!    |
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