ITER: The Giant Fusion Reactor

ITER: The Giant Fusion Reactor
Author: Michel Claessens
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 229
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.

Fusion Reactor Design

Fusion Reactor Design
Author: Takashi Okazaki
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 644
Release: 2022-03-14
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3527414037

Fusion Reactor Design Provides a detailed overview of fusion reactor design, written by an international leader in the field Nuclear fusion—generating four times as much energy from the same mass of fuel as nuclear fission—is regarded by its proponents as a viable, eco-friendly alternative to gas-fired, coal-fired, and conventional power plants. Although the physics of nuclear fusion is essentially understood, the construction of prototype reactors currently presents significant technical challenges. Fusion Reactor Design: Plasma Physics, Fuel Cycle System, Operation and Maintenance provides a systematic, reader-friendly introduction to the characteristics, components, and critical systems of fusion reactors. Focusing on the experimental Tokamak reactor, this up-to-date resource covers relevant plasma physics, necessary technology, analysis methods, and the other aspects of fusion reactors. In-depth chapters include derivations of key formulas, figures highlighting physical and structural characteristics of fusion reactors, illustrative numerical calculations, practical design examples, and more. Designed to help researchers and engineers understand and overcome the technological difficulties in making fusion power a reality, this volume: Provides in-depth knowledge on controlled thermonuclear fusion and its large-scale application in both current fusion reactors and future test reactors Covers plasma analysis, plasma equilibrium and stability, and plasma transport and confinement, and safety considerations Explains each component of fusion reactors, including divertors, superconducting coils, plasma heating and current drive systems, and vacuum vessels Discusses safety aspects of fusion reactors as well as computational approaches to safety aspects of fusion reactors Fusion Reactor Design: Plasma Physics, Fuel Cycle System, Operation and Maintenance is required reading for undergraduate and graduate students studying plasma physics and fusion reactor technology, and an important reference for nuclear physicists, nuclear reactor manufacturers, and power engineers involved in fusion reactor research and advanced technology development.

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.

Tokamaks

Tokamaks
Author: John Wesson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 828
Release: 2011-10-13
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0199592233

The tokamak is the principal tool in controlled fusion research. This book acts as an introduction to the subject and a basic reference for theory, definitions, equations, and experimental results. The fourth edition has been completely revised, describing their development of tokamaks to the point of producing significant fusion power.

Controlled Fusion and Plasma Physics

Controlled Fusion and Plasma Physics
Author: Kenro Miyamoto
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 424
Release: 2006-10-23
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9781584887096

Resulting from ongoing, international research into fusion processes, the International Tokamak Experimental Reactor (ITER) is a major step in the quest for a new energy source.The first graduate-level text to cover the details of ITER, Controlled Fusion and Plasma Physics introduces various aspects and issues of recent fusion research activities through the shortest access path. The distinguished author breaks down the topic by first dealing with fusion and then concentrating on the more complex subject of plasma physics. The book begins with the basics of controlled fusion research, followed by discussions on tokamaks, reversed field pinch (RFP), stellarators, and mirrors. The text then explores ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) instabilities, resistive instabilities, neoclassical tearing mode, resistive wall mode, the Boltzmann equation, the Vlasov equation, and Landau damping. After covering dielectric tensors of cold and hot plasmas, the author discusses the physical mechanisms of wave heating and noninductive current drive. The book concludes with an examination of the challenging issues of plasma transport by turbulence, such as magnetic fluctuation and zonal flow. Controlled Fusion and Plasma Physics clearly and thoroughly promotes intuitive understanding of the developments of the principal fusion programs and the relevant fundamental and advanced plasma physics associated with each program.

Fundamentals of Magnetic Thermonuclear Reactor Design

Fundamentals of Magnetic Thermonuclear Reactor Design
Author: Vasilij A. Glukhikh
Publisher: Woodhead Publishing
Total Pages: 476
Release: 2018-05-21
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0081024711

Fundamentals of Magnetic Thermonuclear Reactor Design is a comprehensive resource on fusion technology and energy systems written by renowned scientists and engineers from the Russian nuclear industry. It brings together a wealth of invaluable experience and knowledge on controlled thermonuclear fusion (CTF) facilities with magnetic plasma confinement – from the first semi-commercial tokamak T-3, to the multi-billion international experimental thermonuclear reactor ITER, now in construction in France. As the INTOR and ITER projects have made an immense contribution in the past few decades, this book focuses on its practical engineering aspects and the basics of technical physics and electrical engineering. Users will gain an understanding of the key ratios between plasma and technical parameters, design streamlining algorithms and engineering solutions. - Written by a team of qualified experts who have been involved in the design of thermonuclear reactors for over 50 years - Outlines the most important features of the ITER project in France which is building the largest tokamak, including the design, material selection, safety and economic considerations - Includes data on how to design magnetic fusion reactors using CAD tools, along with relevant regulatory documents

Magnetic Fusion Technology

Magnetic Fusion Technology
Author: Thomas J. Dolan
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 816
Release: 2014-02-10
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1447155564

Magnetic Fusion Technology describes the technologies that are required for successful development of nuclear fusion power plants using strong magnetic fields. These technologies include: • magnet systems, • plasma heating systems, • control systems, • energy conversion systems, • advanced materials development, • vacuum systems, • cryogenic systems, • plasma diagnostics, • safety systems, and • power plant design studies. Magnetic Fusion Technology will be useful to students and to specialists working in energy research.

Fusion

Fusion
Author: Garry McCracken
Publisher: Academic Press
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2013
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0123846560

"Offers scientists and researchers the scientific basics, up-to-date current research, technical developments, and practical applications needed in fusion energy research/"--pub. desc.

Conceptual Development of Steady State Compact Fusion Neutron Sources

Conceptual Development of Steady State Compact Fusion Neutron Sources
Author: International Atomic Energy Agency
Publisher: International Atomic Energy Agency
Total Pages: 32
Release: 2019-09-24
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 9789201035196

Fusion neutron sources have many important practical uses, including triggering fission reactions, manufacturing medical isotopes, testing materials and components for use in future fusion power reactors, and facilitating the production of various isotopes like tritium. All these applications can be potentially improved by achieving high energy compact fusion neutron sources (CFNSs). The present publication is a compilation of the main results and findings of an IAEA coordinated research project (CRP) on the development of concepts and conceptual designs for both low and high power CFNSs. Through the collaboration of experts in the participating Member States, the results achieved under the project laid the foundation for practical applications of intense fusion neutron sources.

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.