Nuclear Fusion – Much Needed Recognition
By E. Ralph Hostetter (11/28/06)
Nuclear fusion, an atomic method to provide a viable energy source for the world, recently received two major advances.
Those who have read my columns over the last 14 years may remember the subject. The dominant media up to this point in time has chosen to suppress any information on nuclear fusion.
As the first major advance, one member of the dominant media has broken the silence and has given a positive report upon the subject and in addition has opened a website for comment.
None other than BBC News reports the second major breakthrough, the November 21, 2006 signing of an agreement to construct an international experiment on the full scale of a fusion power plant.
Ministers from the European Union, the United States, Japan, China, India, the Republic of Korea and the Russian Federation met in Paris on Tuesday, November 21, to sign an agreement to establish the project, ITER — International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor — in the south of France.
This endeavor, represented by seven of the major powers in the world with over half the world's population, indicates the seriousness with which nuclear fusion energy is being considered.
The consortium of nations has been collecting the results of previously conducted experiments from around the world. Prototypes of all key components of the project already have been fabricated by industry and tested. Initial construction work on the six billion dollar facility is scheduled to start in 2007, according to BBC News.
A previous European project, designated as "Jet," located in the United Kingdom, has produced 16 million kilowatt hours of fusion power. "ITER" is to be twice the size of "Jet" and upon completion is expected to produce 500 million watts of fusion power.
Fusion is the process which produces the energy of the sun.
The atomic reaction of two hydrogen isotopes, deuterium and tritium, produces helium with the release of very large amounts of energy.
The good news is that compounds of deuterium and tritium are found in sea water - more specifically, in heavy water, which occurs in a ratio of one part for every 50 parts of sea water. Better yet, heavy water occurs one part in every 38 parts off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada.
The extraction of heavy water from sea water dates back to World War II. One of the reasons Nazi Germany conquered Norway was to gain access to heavy water, believed necessary for building an atomic bomb.
The fuel for the fusion process is virtually inexhaustible.
BBC News reports the fusion process in detail, as follows:
“One of the attractions of fusion is the tiny amount of fuel needed. The release of energy from a fusion reaction is 10 million times greater than from a typical chemical reaction, such as burning a fossil fuel.
A 1GW (billion-watt) fusion power station would burn about 1 kg of deuterium and tritium per day, compared with a 1GW coal power station burning 10,000 tonnes per day of coal.
The raw materials to produce this reaction are water and lithium. Lithium is a common metal, in daily use in mobile phones and laptop batteries.
Used to fuel a fusion power station, the lithium in one laptop battery, complemented by deuterium extracted from 45 liters of water, would produce some 200,000 kWh of electricity — the same as 40 tonnes of coal and the equivalent of the UK's current per capita electricity production for 30 years.
There is enough deuterium for millions of years of energy supply, and easily accessible lithium for several thousands of years.
Although it will occupy a large volume, around 1,000 cubic meters, the amount of tritium and deuterium in a fusion reactor will be tiny: the weight of the hot fuel in the core will be about the same as 10 postage stamps.
There is no possibility of a runaway reaction, and because the gas will be so dilute, there is not enough energy inside the plant to drive a major accident and not much fuel will be available to be released to the environment if an accident did occur. (There is no danger of radiation exposure.)
The aim of ITER is for the first time to put reactor scale physics and technology together in a single experiment to demonstrate that a fusion power plant is feasible."
The success of nuclear fusion should be greeted with much fanfare and enthusiasm by environmentalists everywhere.
When nuclear fusion becomes a reality cheap electrical energy will work wonders for America. Electric automobiles, buses and trucks will travel the highways, free of carbon dioxide. The reversal of the buildup of CO2 will no doubt cause global cooling to the delight of global warmers. The day will come when we can knock down all the polluting smoke stacks of the world. Acid rain will disappear and smog will no longer dim the skies over large urban areas.
Perfection and extensive use of nuclear fusion is years to come. In the meantime, the United States should concentrate its efforts in developing conventional atomic energy plants.
E. Ralph Hostetter, a prominent businessman and publisher, also is an award-winning columnist and Vice Chairman of the Free Congress Foundation Board of Directors.
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