Nuclear Fusion Energy for Electricity - NUSTEC2012 v2

7/28/2019 Nuclear Fusion Energy for Electricity - NUSTEC2012 v2

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Nuclear fusion energy for electricity,

how can we get involved..

By

Dr Abu Bakar Mhd Ghazali (UNITEN)

Dr Abd Aziz Mohamed (ANM) andDr Faridah M Idris (ANM)

E= mc2


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Contents

Intro. & objective

Background & history

Theory Technologies small, medium and large scales

Future

How we can get involved Conclusion


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Small sun on earth

Energy of the future

Sun in a bottle

Energy from water

Facts*: 144 ppm Deuterium in water;

233 gigatonnes of Tritium in sea water.

Research on fusion energy with Slogans:

French physicist Sbastien Balibar, director of research at

the CNRS, said, "We say that we will put the sun into a box. The

idea is pretty. The problem is, we don't know how to make the

box"

(*Prof Kikuchi lecture at UM, 2009)

Introduction:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNRShttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNRS


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Objective:

To generate electricity from nuclear fusion energy.

Energy absorbed from these neutrons is extracted and passed into the primary

coolant to power the turbine in the electric generating plant. The heat

produced from the nuclear fusion such as the X-ray implosion and the neutron

energies has to be properly channeled to a turbine generator of the power

generating plant to produce electricity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Deuterium-tritium_fusion.svg


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Background and History:

History on Nuclear bombs (uncontrolled process)

a. Nuclear fission

eg.235

U + n236

U92

Kr +142

Ba + 2n+ ENERGY (202.5 MeV)

b. Nuclear fusion, since the 1950s.eg. 2H + 3H4He + n + 17.6 MeV.

Required energy to ignite the fusion is 10 KeV

(= ~ 120 Million Kelvin).

Albert Einstein: ENERGY = E = m c2

m = change of mass, c = speed of light = 300,000 km/s

(A kilogram of Uranium-235 = 3 million x the energy of a kilogram of coal)


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1945: Little Boy at Hiroshima

(15 kiloton TNT)

Fat Man, Nagasaki

(21 kiloton TNT)

1961: Tzar Bomba

(57,000 kiloton TNT)

by Soviet at Novaya Zamlya Islands

Fission Fusion

Weight: 27 tonnes
http://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_2//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/54/Atomic_bombing_of_Japan.jpg


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Problem: to get the nuclei close enough to fuse, ~ 10-11 m.

Requires: to heat these nuclei to 10 keV 120 millionkelvins. Containment vessels melt and explode at these

temperatures, and therefore the plasma has to be floating

i.e. kept away from the walls, such as using magnetic

confinement.

< 10-11 m for nuclear force is greater than electrostatic (Coulomb) force.

Theory:


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Physics at 10-11m


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Technology development of fusion power-1st commercial fission reactor : Russia 5 MWe, 1954

Now: ~ 500 plants in operation (2nd & 3rd generations).

- Controlled thermonuclear fusion? R&D started in 1950s

- Use magnetic (tokamak) and inertial (eg. NIF, USA) confinements.

- Has been 6 decades of research, but not yet available commercially!

Why?-Fusion phenomena not well known (especially for Q >1, continuous).

(although Simulation software is available (e.g. GENE code).

- Small fusion devices work for a flash of second only (~100 nS)

- Real case: for continuous running of fusion reactor.

-Tedious engineering difficulties. We have to contain the plasma

at 120,000,000oC for long period of time!

Lawson criterion - For the self-sustaining reactions, the Q value should be greater

than 5, meaning that more fusion energy releases as compared to the amount of

energy needed to heat up its plasma to the required temperatures.

Technologies:


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Fig. 3: Foam plasma mechanism firing sequence in TellerUlam design:

A. Warhead before firing; primary (fission bomb) at top, secondary (fusion fuel) at bottom, all suspended inpolystyrene foam.

B. High-explosive fires in primary, compressing plutonium core into supercriticality and beginning a

fission reaction.

C. Fission primary emits X-rays which are scattered along the inside of the casing, irradiating the

polystyrene foam.

D. Polystyrene foam becomes plasma, compressing secondary, and plutonium sparkplug begins to fission.E. Compressed and heated, lithium-6 deutheride fuel produces tritium and begins the fusion reaction. The

neutron flux produced causes the U-238 tamper to fission. A fireball starts to form.

How Hydrogen explodes .

Note:

1. Fusion/fision= 97/3

2. Tzar Bomber, 1961.Weight 27 tonnes,

Energy 56 Megatons

Energy density: Fusion reactions >> nuclear fission


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Required Fuel for 1000 MWe of 1 year operation

Coal 2,000,000 tons

Fuel oil- Diesel 1,960,000,000 gallons

Solar 100 km2 photovoltaic @

10% eff.

Nuclear fission 30 tons Uranium

Nuclear fusion 0.6 tons2

H +3

H

*Water 144 ppm Deuterium (2

H = D)Sea-water 233 Gigatons Tritium (3H = T)

*Prof Kikuchi, JAEA note.

ITER: 0.5g D+T -- estimated 500 MWt for 1000 sec.

Plasma current 12 MA,

Toroidal field 9T, Q = 50 max.

International

Thermonuclear

Experimental

Reactor

(ITER), France

Fusion offers:

No carbon emission, no air pollution,unlimited fuel, intrinsically safe.

The fusion reaction rate vs. temperature

840 m3


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NIF's basic layout. The laser pulse is generated in the room just right of center, and is sent into

the beamlines (blue) moving into the amplifiers at the top (purple). After several passes through

the amplifiers the light is cleaned up in the filters (blue) and sent into the "switchyard" (red) whereit is aimed into the target chamber (silver). Three football fields could fit inside NIF.

- 192 uv laser beams fire at the same time from all directions with total energy of 1.43 MJ,

produces ~ 6 x 1014 neutrons.- new world record! (2011)

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA

- US$ 4 billion, completed 2010.


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MIT Alcator C-Mod (2010)

(4T, Plasma current 0.4 - 2 MA)

MIT Claim: Fusion makes major step forward studies of the plasma edge

(November 8, 2010).

KSTAR, Korea

(3.5T

14 MW),

Fully super-

conducting

magnet.

JET, Japan

(3.45 T

38 MW)

10 MW sustained for 0.5 s in 1997

Main problems:

- To improve plasma turbulence

- Impurities when plasma touching

the containers wall.

Note: Plasmas do not escape under highmagnetic fields.


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28.6 s with fusion gain Q =1.25 in 2006 World record!


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KAZAKHSTAN TOKAMAK FOR MATERIAL TESTING (KTM), NATIONAL NUCLEAR CENTER

Majority of

measurementsare in nS ranges.

So, Control and Data

Acquisition System

(C&DAS), sensors

and cameras

have to

be very2 fast!

What is Plasma?


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1. 2H + 2H 3T + 1H

3He + nrequires 15 keV total

1. D-D fuel cycle:

2. p + 11B 34He & 4He + 11B 14N + n (0.2%), i.e. direct conversion into electricity

+ 2.4 MeV requires ion energies above 100 keV (equivalent to 1.1 billion K)

What is Plasma?

It is not solid, liquid or gas but the fourth state of the matter that is an ionized gas of which

a nucleus and an electron are separated. 99% of the universe is composed of plasma. A

lightening and an aurora, or everyday gadget like a fluorescent lamp and a neon sign are all

made up of plasma.

: Dense Plasma focus (DPF)Example of Small Fusion Device

sheath of plasma

current

From Focus Fusion Society:


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Small Fusion Devices

Dense Plasma Focus (DPF) One of research tool that produces initial parameters

relevant to the larger scale of fusion devices.

Biggest DPF (1 MJ)


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SMALL SCALE DPF DEVICES

ANM DPF

33 uF

10 15 kV3.375 J

Ar, D2Single shot

~105 shots

ANM, Bangi

2007

X-ray exists during duscharge


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Fusor fusion

Photo also shows two concentric spherical

electrodes.

The inner one being charged negatively withrespect to the outer one (to about 80 kV).

Once the ions enter the region between the

electrodes, they are accelerated towards the

center. The ions are accelerated to several keV

by the electrodes.

Temperature can reach 45 Megakelvins at the

centre for potential different of 4 KV.

FarnsworthHirsch fusor during operation in

so called "star mode" characterized by "rays"

of glowing plasma which appear to emanatefrom the gaps in the inner grid

Spin-off Plasma focus and Fusor:As a pulse neutron generator

(neutron radiography) and x-ray

Source.


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How we can get involved:

Realization of Fusion Energy is not far: ITER 2020, DEMO 1st

commercial plant (2040?)

Plasma focus in Malaysia, e.g. UM, ANM: continue on research &

share / discuss at international via IAEA*.

IAEA encourages researchers from developing countries to

participate in IAEA meetings, establish contact, training/ OJT etc. Joint research at larger scale of nuclear fusion devices KSTAR, JT-

60, JET, MIT, NIF, etc.

PhD students interest in plasma, control & data acquisition system

(C&DAS) for plasma control1 , material testing2 etc.

UNITEN, ANM, etc. research in theoretical physics, modeling, test/

verify at medium scale fusion devices.

ITER apply as a staff?

1Portugal (ISTTOK), 2Kazakhstan (KTM)


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This field is a frontier of physics and also a most challenge engineering

capability (with expected commercial plant in year 2040 (DEMO)).

The design know-how on magnetic field, plasma heating, instrumentation andcontrol, cooling, plasma control, etc.

It is a proud for Malaysian to get involve in this project. Spin-off from this

project. E.g. how to design a very large magnetic flux, > 1 Tesla,

is very much significant especially for those involved in R&D to product new

specs. of equipment and facility.

Thank you for your attention.

Artist imagination of a black hole -

Not even light can escape due to very

high gravity.

Conclusion:


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Documents

Nuclear Fusion Energy for Electricity - NUSTEC2012 v2