Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
where the
required heat is supplied by the fusion reaction itself.
Here the cycle is to ionize the gas to make the plasma,
build up the current, heat the plasma with an external
heater until the temperature for fusion is reached, turn off
the heater, and then have the energy required to keep the
temperature high generated by the fusion reaction itself.
About
The goal is to produce a
“
burning plasma
”
% of the energy released by fusion is required to
maintain the temperature.
An international consortium of countries is now build-
ing the ITER project in France to demonstrate burning
plasma. The device is huge, expensive, and is already
ve
years behind schedule and three times over budget, some-
thing that seems to be true of all big fusion projects
including the NIF. Tune-up will begin in the year
,
with the
. The goal of
the program is to have the burning plasma last for much
longer than the time the heater is on.
ITER is very expensive and very
first try for burning plasma in
flexible. Issues include
conquering any new instabilities in the plasma that are
discovered and
guration for the
plasma so that a next-phase device can be made smaller
and more cost-effective. ITER
finding the optimum con
'
is present budget is about
$
billion and if it could produce electricity (there are
components missing necessary for a power plant) the
capital cost would be about
$
per kilowatt,
times the cost of a gas-
red plant and
times the
cost of a nuclear plant.
A personal view: I have told the people at Livermore
Lab more than once to keep quiet about electricity from
inertial fusion until they make a micro-bomb go off, since
they have made promises in the past and failed to deliver.
