Eckert, 4:00
L08
NUCLEAR FUSION: THE FUTURE OF ENERGY
Connor Hooper (cah156@pitt.edu)
OUR ENERGY NEEDS
In our world today we are heavily dependent on nonrenewable resources to support our energy needs. About
85% of our energy comes from fossil fuels, which include
coal, oil and natural gas, and only about 8% comes from
nuclear sources [1]. If we are to break our dependency on
fossil fuels we need to implement more abundant and
efficient sources of energy. In order for engineers to find a
solution to our energy needs and stay true to the code of
ethics they need to research a way that is not harmful to the
public [2]. Even though it is still in developmental phases,
the process of nuclear fusion is one possible solution to our
energy problem. The fuel, hydrogen, for nuclear fusion is
among the most abundant substances in the world. The
specific isotopes of the hydrogen fuel that are used are
deuterium and tritium [3]. Although tritium is extremely rare
it can be made by placing a blanket of lithium around the
plasma in a fusion reactor [4]. The neutrons from the plasma
will react with the lithium to produce more tritium, which
will then react with the deuterium and continue the fusion
reaction. After undergoing fusion the products of deuterium
and tritium are helium, a neutron, and energy. None of these
products are radioactive nor are they harmful to the public or
the environment, which abides by one of the major points in
the engineer code of ethics. The product of burning fossil
fuels, however, releases greenhouse gases that are harmful to
the environment and the public. With nuclear fission the
products are radioactive and they stay around for millions of
years [1], but nuclear fusion solves these issues.
Ethics of Engineer
Engineers have to abide by a specific code of ethics
whenever they are working to solve a problem. Many of
these codes have to deal with the safety, health and welfare
of the public and the environment [2]. By the code of ethics,
the solutions that engineers develop must follow all for the
laws pertaining to the topic. The current processes of
supplying energy do follow all of the environmental and
health laws that are placed on them, but according to the
engineer code of ethics creating pollutants from fossil fuels
breaks one of the major points of the codes. The pollutants
are very harmful to the environment and the public, so
engineers need to find a solution that does not jeopardize the
safety and health of the environment and the public. The
process of nuclear fusion does not create any harmful
pollutants to the environment or the public, so this process
does follow one of the major points in the engineer code of
ethics. Another code of ethics that needs to be followed is
University of Pittsburgh, Swanson School of Engineering 1
October 9, 2012
the code that states engineers must use their knowledge and
skills to enhance human welfare [2]. By finding a clean and
efficient source of energy engineers will better the welfare of
the public.
Without the pollutants from the current
processes of energy production the health of the public and
the environment will not be harmed. So the process of
nuclear fusion for a means of generating energy will enhance
public welfare by not damaging their health and by
providing a good source of energy that could be plentiful.
Without being forced to follow the code of ethics the
processes for generating energy would not have to be safe to
the public nor the environment. The code of ethics says that
engineers have to practice ethically and lawfully, so without
this nothing will be made safe for people[5]. If in some
incident a nuclear fission power plant had a meltdown then
the safety of the surround public and environment would be
at risk. However, a nuclear fusion power plant does not
release radioactive products, so any problems that happen to
occur will not cause harm to the whole public. In order for
engineers to solve the current issue with our processes of
generating energy they must follow the code of ethics to
ensure the safety and health of the public and the
environment [2].
My Position
I feel that nuclear fusion is the future of clean energy.
Nuclear fusion does not use combustion to produce steam so
there is no air pollution from nuclear fusion power plant.
The fuel for nuclear fusion is very abundant, deuterium can
be extracted from seawater and tritium is produced from
lithium blankets in the fusion reactor [4]. None of the
materials have to be mined so that reduced the air pollution
from not having to use mining equipment. In a fusion
reactor only a small of amount of fuel is used to control the
amount of energy released [5]. Having this control reduces
the chance for problems to occur and the reaction itself
produces less radiation than natural background radiation.
The fusion reactors do not produce high-level nuclear waste
like fission reactors and the nuclear waste from the fusion
reactors is not of weapons grade so there is a no chance for a
dirty bomb to be made.
Education
I feel that having this paper in a freshmen
engineering course is not beneficial to engineering
education. I do like the idea of writing a paper about your
topic of interest, but I feel that the time put into researching
about a topic of my interest could have been used to research
Connor Hooper
about something that is more relevant to basic engineering.
My topic of nuclear fusion wouldn’t be a topic in an entry
level engineering course because nuclear fusion requires
much more knowledge about chemistry and physics then a
freshmen engineer would have. So I feel that this paper
should be written about something pertaining to freshmen
engineers. The paper itself I feel is beneficial to engineers,
but I feel that it should not be in a freshmen engineering
course.
reactor has magnetic field coils which are super-conducting
magnets that hold and shape the plasma with their magnetic
field. They put the plasma into the shape of a donut which is
called a tokamak which is the most efficient shape for this
reaction [3]. The next main part is a transformer which
supplies electricity for the magnetic field coils [3]. There are
also parts for cooling down the magnetics. The next parts are
blanket modules which are made of lithium. These blankets
absorb heat and high energy neutrons and it’s the absorption
of these neutrons into the blanket that produces tritium. The
final main part is the divertors which get rid of the helium
that is produced. [3]
TEST FUSION REACTORS
There are many different fusion reactor designs around
the world today. There is a plan for the International
Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in Cadarache,
France which is a test magnetic confinement reactor built
from the collaboration of the United States, Russia, Europe,
and Japan [3]. The ITER site has been founded and site
preparation began in early 2007, but commercial energy
production is not expected for at least the next few decades.
The National Ignition Facility is pushing towards the goal of
nuclear fusion. They are testing at Lawrence Livermore
Laboratory with an inertial confinement reactor [7]. There
they are using around 200 laser beams to produce a burst of
energy up to 500 billion watts of power [7]. The laser beams
makes the temperature inside the pellets around 100 million
degrees Fahrenheit which is hotter that the center of the Sun
[5]. Scientists think that if they can burn five fuel pellets per
second, then a power plant could generate a gigawatt of
energy [7].
How the Magnetic Confinement Reactor Works
In the vacuum vessel the fuel, which is deuterium and
tritium, will be heated with microwaves, electricity and
neutral particle beams from neutral beam injector. The
plasma will then be pressurized by the magnetic field and
the fusion reaction will occur. The lithium blanket will
absorb high energy neutrons and produce more tritium fuel.
The heat from the neutron absorption and the plasma will be
transferred by a water cooling system to a heat exchanger
and will make steam. The steam will then drive a turbine to
produce electricity. After driving the turbine the steam will
be condensed back into water to absorb more heat to
produce more steam. During the test phases fusion reactors
only have a fusion reaction for about 300 to 500 seconds
they will eventually there will be sustained fusion [3].
Inertial Confinement Reactor
NUCLEAR FUSION REACTOR
In an inertial confinement reactor about 200 laser beams
are focused in the target chamber, which is also called a
hohlraum, on a single point [3], [8]. At that point a small
pellet is placed which contains the fuel. The fuel is a
deuterium and tritium in a small plastic cylinder. When the
laser beams heat the cylinder up they create x-rays [9]. The
combination of the heat and x-rays turns the fuel into a
plasma state and then compresses it until fusion occurs. The
fusion reaction doesn’t last very long but it produces a lot of
heat and energy [3]. In a reactor there would be multiple
pellets so there would be sustained heat. The heat would go
to a heat exchanger to generate steam. The steam would then
drive a turbine to generate electricity. The process sounds
expensive because there needs to be multiple pellets but
scientist estimate that the pellets would only cost about
$0.25 [3], [8].
For nuclear fusion to take place there needs to be
extremely high temperatures and very high pressure [4]. The
need for the high temperature is so that the hydrogen atoms
will have enough energy to overcome the repulsion of their
nuclei and the need for the high pressure is to get the
hydrogen atoms close enough to actually fuse together. One
way to obtain the temperature and pressure needed for fusion
is to contain the hydrogen plasma in strong magnetic and
electric fields. Another way to achieve these conditions is to
use laser beams and or ion beams to heat and pressurize the
plasma. In the fusion reactor you must first get the hydrogen
gas into a plasma state. This is done by bombarding the
hydrogen gas with microwaves, electricity and neutral
particle beams from accelerators. The plasma is then
pressurized by super-conducting magnets [4].
CONCLUSION
Magnetic Confinement Reactor
In a magnetic confinement reactor there are seven main
parts [3]. There is a vacuum vessel that holds the plasma
and keeps the fusion reaction in a vacuum. There is a neutral
beam injector which injects the particle beam from the
accelerator to heat the plasma to the proper temperature. The
With more and more fossil fuels being used there needs
to be an efficient and abundant energy source that we can
use. Nuclear fusion is the solution to this problem. The
burning of fossil fuels gives us 85% of our energy [1]. To
break this dependency we need to pursue nuclear fusion.
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Connor Hooper
When you burn fossil fuels they release harmful gases into
the atmosphere causes damage to the environment which is a
breach of the code of ethics that engineers must follow in
order to properly solve issues, but in the case of nuclear
fusion there is no combustion so no such thing can occur.
Nuclear power is about 19% of the energy generated and it
was the largest source of emission free energy [10]. With the
advancement into nuclear fusion that 19% can be increased
dramatically. The United States, Russia, Europe, and Japan
are making efforts to make nuclear fusion happen. The
ITER project in Cadarache, France will be a magnetic
confinement reactor which uses magnetic fields to shape and
contain the plasma. Even though this project will not be
open for commercial use for another few decades, it is a very
good option in the field of nuclear fusion. The other type of
reactor is the inertial confinement reactor that is being tested
at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. This type of
reactor uses laser beams to start the fusion reaction. In both
reactors the heat from the fusion is used to create steam
which will drive a turbine that generates electricity. In both
cases this is a “green” process and no pollutants are made.
By not creating any pollutants both of these reactor types are
clean sources of energy. Since there are no pollutants being
created the public and environmental health and safety is
being upheld. The pursuit of nuclear fusion could also
benefit the welfare of the public. There are no bad health
effects from nuclear fusion because the only products are
helium and energy. Since the fuel for fusion is very plentiful
they cost of the energy should not be very high which goes
into increase the wealth of the public. The future of clean
and abundant energy is in the field of nuclear fusion.
[5] American Institute of Chemical Engineers. (2010).
“Code
of
Ethics”
Aiche.
(Online
Article).http://www.aiche.org/about/code-ethics
[6] J. Fischman. (2012). “Re-Engineering Engineering
Education to Retain Students” The Chronicle. (Online
Article).
http://chronicle.com/blogs/percolator/reengineering-engineering-education-to-retain-students/28745
[7] Unknown Author. (2012). “Nuclear Fusion Power.”
World Nuclear Association. (Online). http://www.worldnuclear.org/info/inf66.html
[8] K. Than. (2010). “Fusion Power a Step Closer After
Giant Laser Blast.” National Geographic. (Online article).
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/01/100128nuclear-fusion-power-lasers-science/
[9] “Nuclear Power.” Institute for Energy Research. (Online
Report).http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2008/08/2
6/nuclear-power-facts/
[10] J. Doyle. (2009). “Scientists take another stab at nuclear
fusion.” San Francisco Chronicle. (Online article).
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Scientists-take-anotherstab-at-nuclear-fusion-3166095.php
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’d like to thank J.T. for helping me stay on task and for
helping me near the end. I’d also like to thank Matt for his
tips on writing a conclusion. Lastly I’d like to thank most of
my dorm floor for helping me take a break when I was have
a rough patch in my writing.
I feel that this paper should not be in a freshmen
engineering course. Even though it is good to write about
something that interest you, I feel that it would be more
beneficial for me to write about something that relates to
freshmen engineering. The topic of nuclear fusion would not
be addressed in a freshmen engineering course, so I feel that
this paper belongs in an upper level course.
REFERENCES
[1]Sustainable
Table.
(Online
Report).
http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/energy/
[2] National Society of Professional Engineers. (2012).
“NSPE Code of Ethics for Engineers." NSPE. (Online
Article)http://www.nspe.org/Ethics/CodeofEthics/index.html
[3] J. Forshaw. (2012). “Nuclear fusion – your time has
come.”
The
Observer.
(Online
article).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/sep/16/nuclearfusion-iter-jet-forshaw
[4] C. Freudenrich, Ph.D. (2011). “How Nuclear Fusion
Reactors Work.” HowStuffWorks. (Online Report).
http://science.howstuffworks.com/fusion-reactor.htm
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