The Quest for a Fusion Energy Reactor

The Quest for a Fusion Energy Reactor
Author: Weston Stacey
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 199
Release: 2010-04-26
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0199750882

At the Geneva Superpower Summit in November 1985, Secretary of the former Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev and US President Ronald Regan agreed to pursue an international effort to develop fusion energy for peaceful purposes. At a time when tension between these cold war nations was very high, how were these leaders able to come together to work towards making nuclear fusion a feasible energy source? The Quest for a Fusion Energy Reactor is the story of the INTOR Workshop (INternational TOkamak Reactor) which brought together scientists and engineers from Europe, Japan, the United States, and the (then) USSR from 1978 to 1988 to share their individual research and work cooperatively on the design and development possibilities for harnessing nuclear energy. Drawing on his insights while serving as Vice Chairman of the INTOR Workshop, Weston Stacey offers an insider's account of both the participants' technical work and their fascinating political interactions under the blanket of the cold war. An accessible presentation of their research on the viability of designing, constructing, and operating a Tokamak experimental power reactor is combined with personal anecdotes of the obstacles Workshop leaders and participants faced as they strove to make progress on the global future of nuclear fusion technology while balancing their own countries' priorities. The Workshop led to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), construction of which began in 2009 with the goal of demonstrating the scientific and technical feasibility of fusion power.

A Piece of the Sun

A Piece of the Sun
Author: Daniel Clery
Publisher: Abrams
Total Pages: 243
Release: 2014-07-29
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1468310410

How physicists are trying to solve our energy problems—by unlocking the secrets of the sun: “Explain[s] cutting-edge science with remarkable lucidity.” —Booklist This revelatory book tells the story of the scientists who believe the solution to the planet’s ills can be found in the original energy source: the Sun itself. There, at its center, the fusion of 620 million tons of hydrogen every second generates an unfathomable amount of energy. By replicating even a tiny piece of the Sun’s power on Earth, we can secure all the heat and energy we would ever need. The simple yet extraordinary ambition of nuclear-fusion scientists has garnered many skeptics, but, as A Piece of the Sun makes clear, large-scale nuclear fusion is scientifically possible—and perhaps even preferable to other options. Clery argues passionately and eloquently that the only thing keeping us from harnessing this cheap, clean and renewable energy is our own shortsightedness. “Surprisingly sprightly…Clery walks readers through the history of fusion study, from Lord Kelvin, Albert Einstein and a large cast of peculiar physicists, to all manner of international politics—e.g., the darts and feints of the Cold War, the braces applied by OPEC in the wake of the 1973 war among Israel, Egypt and Syria. Clery negotiates the hard science with aplomb.” —Kirkus Reviews “A timely perspective on truly urgent science.” —Booklist “Ultimately, Clery argues that developing a source of energy that won’t damage the climate—or ever run out—is worth striving for.” —Publishers Weekly

Star Power

Star Power
Author: Alain Bécoulet
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2023-09-19
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0262547287

A concise and accessible explanation of the science and technology behind the domestication of nuclear fusion energy. Nuclear fusion research tells us that the Sun uses one gram of hydrogen to make as much energy as can be obtained by burning eight tons of petroleum. If nuclear fusion—the process that makes the stars shine—could be domesticated for commercial energy production, the world would gain an inexhaustible source of energy that neither depletes natural resources nor produces greenhouse gases. In Star Power, Alan Bécoulet offers a concise and accessible primer on fusion energy, explaining the science and technology of nuclear fusion and describing the massive international scientific effort to achieve commercially viable fusion energy. Bécoulet draws on his work as Head of Engineering at ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) to explain how scientists are trying to “put the sun in a box.” He surveys the history of nuclear power, beginning with post–World War II efforts to use atoms for peaceful purposes and describes how energy is derived from fusion, explaining that the essential principle of fusion is based on the capacity of nucleons (protons and neutrons) to assemble and form structures (atomic nuclei) in spite of electrical repulsion between protons, which all have a positive charge. He traces the evolution of fusion research and development, mapping the generation of electric current though fusion. The ITER project marks a giant step in the development of fusion energy, with the potential to demonstrate the feasibility of a nuclear fusion reactor. Star Power offers an introduction to what may be the future of energy production.

The Fusion Quest

The Fusion Quest
Author: T. Kenneth Fowler
Publisher:
Total Pages: 280
Release: 1997
Genre: Science
ISBN:

To help answer this question, Fowler explains the physical principles on which fusion is based, describes the experiments that have led to the present state of the art, and shows how all these considerations would affect the design of possible fusion-based nuclear power plants.

The Quest for a Fusion Energy Reactor

The Quest for a Fusion Energy Reactor
Author: Weston Stacey
Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand
Total Pages: 199
Release: 2010-04-26
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0199733848

Based on the journal of one of the principal participants, this book provides a history of the IAEA INTOR Workshop (1978-88) during which hundreds of fusion scientists and engineers collaborated to define an experimental fusion energy reactor. The INTOR Workshop led to the present international ITER project, a collaborative effort to construct the first fusion energy reactor.

Star Power

Star Power
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 48
Release: 1987
Genre: Fusion reactors
ISBN:

Fusion

Fusion
Author: Robin Herman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2006-03-16
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780521024952

This is the story of the international race to build the first atomic fusion reactor.

Starpower

Starpower
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 252
Release: 1987
Genre: Controlled fusion
ISBN:

ITER: The Giant Fusion Reactor

ITER: The Giant Fusion Reactor
Author: Michel Claessens
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 216
Release: 2019-10-17
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3030275817

This book provides for the first time an insider’s view into ITER, the biggest fusion reactor in the world, which is currently being constructed in southern France. Aimed at bringing the “energy of the stars” to earth, ITER is funded by the major economic powers (China, the EU, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and the US). Often presented as a “nuclear but green” energy source, fusion could play an important role in the future electricity supply. But as delays accumulate and budgets continue to grow, ITER is currently a star partially obscured by clouds. Will ITER save humanity by providing a clean, safe and limitless source of energy, or is it merely a political showcase of cutting-edge technology? Is ITER merely an ambitious research project and partly a PR initiative driven by some politically connected scientists? In any case, ITER has already helped spur on rival projects in the US, Canada and the UK. This book offers readers a behind-the-scenes look at this controversial project, which France snatched from Japan, and introduces them to a world of superlatives: with the largest magnets in the world, the biggest cryogenic plant and tremendous computing power, ITER is one of the most fascinating, and most international, scientific and technological endeavours of our time.

An Indispensable Truth

An Indispensable Truth
Author: Francis Chen
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 444
Release: 2011-04-11
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1441978208

Recent books have raised the public consciousness about the dangers of global warming and climate change. This book is intended to convey the message that there is a solution. The solution is the rapid development of hydrogen fusion energy. This energy source is inexhaustible and, although achieving fusion energy is difficult, the progress made in the past two decades has been remarkable. The physics issues are now understood well enough that serious engineering can begin.The book starts with a summary of climate change and energy sources, trying to give a concise, clear, impartial picture of the facts, separate from conjecture and sensationalism. Controlled fusion -- the difficult problems and ingenious solutions -- is then explained using many new concepts.The bottom line -- what has yet to be done, how long it will take, and how much it will cost -- may surprise you. Francis F. Chen's career in plasma has extended over five decades. His textbook Introduction to Plasma Physics has been used worldwide continuously since 1974. He is the only physicist who has published significantly in both experiment and theory and on both magnetic fusion and laser fusion. As an outdoorsman and runner, he is deeply concerned about the environment. Currently he enjoys bird photography and is a member of the Audubon Society.