Schaub 4:00
R04
NUCLEAR FUSION: A LIMITLESS CLEAN ENERGY
Maninder Singh (mas514@pitt.edu)
teams, one that attempts to find yet another feasible heat
resistant material, and another that attempts to lower the
emissions of the production process of the tabled material.
He tells them that he will speak to them later that day to
receive a progress report and give any feedback if
necessary.
NUCLEAR FUSION: AN ETHICAL
DEBATE
With the world energy supply projected to be
outweighed by demand by 2050, many people are
beginning to take notice of nuclear fusion energy [1].
When looking into the field of nuclear fusion energy, one
may find many aspects interesting. One may be interested
in how the energy is formed, the technology that goes into
this, or even the future applications of it. One of the most
puzzling aspects of nuclear fusion is the ethics behind it.
Many different things come together to form one’s vision
of the ethics in fusion energy. In my opinion, the best way
to look at this is to look at how one of the engineers in
this field approach their day. Maninder Singh is a nuclear
engineer at the International Thermonuclear Reactor
(ITER), which is the world’s largest nuclear fusion
experiment, located in Cadarache, France [2]. He is the
director of the materials program which is tasked with
finding a suitable material for the interior of the reactor.
ANSWERING THE QUESTIONS:
ETHICS IN NUCLEAR FUSION TODAY
What is ITER?
With his position at ITER, Maninder must routinely
meet with members of the media. After finishing up with
the members of his department, he must meet with a
female reporter from CNN who is there to ask questions
about the progress of ITER. Maninder sits down and is
initially asked to explain what ITER is. He explains that it
is a €12.8 billion dollar fusion experiment that aims to
solve nuclear fusion’s problems so that it can be used as a
viable power source [2].
MAKING MATERIALS, PROTECTING
THE WORLD
How Can One Ethically do This?
The reporter then asks, “How so much money can be
invested into one experiment when there are so many
ongoing financial problems around the world?” Maninder
counters that by stating, “This is a collaborative effort
between many countries so it is a joint investment
between them all [1].” She remains skeptical and
questions, “Is it ethical to use so much money on one
experiment when there are people around the world that
could use aid funded by that money?” Maninder states, “It
is ethical to use this money for ITER because once
nuclear fusion is fully understood and contained, it can
provide affordable energy for people all over the world
for an extremely long time, potentially even centuries
[1].” Maninder is then asked, “How is nuclear fusion
ethical, given nuclear accidents at Chernobyl, Three Mile
Island, and Fukushima-Daiichi?” He responds by simply
saying, “Those accidents all occurred with nuclear fission
power which is not at all similar to nuclear fusion.”
To begin his day, Maninder meets with the other
engineers in his department to see how the search for a
new material is going. One of his colleagues states that
they have developed a material that can withstand the
immense heat, approximately six times hotter than the
sun, needed for a fusion reaction [2]. A major drawback
to this material is that an intense amount of carbon
emissions is released when being produced. This material,
however, would be able to withstand the heat of the
reaction for well over a century. The National Society of
Professional Engineers code of ethics states that an
engineer shall “hold paramount the safety, health and
welfare of the public” [3]. This would cause one to lean
more toward the side of utilizing the material because if
will allow energy to be produced for a very long time,
benefitting the public. However, this is not entirely the
case because the American Nuclear Society code of ethics
states that one will “work to protect the environment” [4].
The carbon emissions from the process of producing the
heat resistant metal are an issue because they damage the
environment. Maninder has to now make a choice but is
ethically torn because the decisions to use the material
and not to use it both violation of a code of ethics that he
is sworn to follow. He decided to table the material for
now and breaks the other engineers and scientist into two
Fusion and Fission, What’s the Difference?
She then inquires, “What is the difference between
the fusion and fission?” Maninder responds by saying, “
For starters, nuclear fusion is the combining of two stable
atoms to form a new one, while nuclear fission is the
splitting of an unstable atom to form two new ones [5].
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University of Pittsburgh, Swanson School of Engineering
2013-10-29
Maninder Singh
While nuclear fission utilized radioactive uranium as its
fuel source, nuclear fusion utilizes two ions of hydrogen
that are commonly found in seawater, deuterium and
tritium [2]. This allows fusion to be done without the risk
of a catastrophic meltdown so the people living around
the reactor can be safe and not worry about something
similar to the nuclear accidents at Chernobyl, Three Mile
Island, or Fukushima-Daiichi occurring and causing them
harm [5].” He continues to sat, “As engineers, we are
sworn to take the public’s health and safety paramount
above all, which I why having the safe, reliable energy
that is provided by fusion is so necessary [3].”
is superior [2].That is what my department is currently
working on. We are developing materials that resist
immense heat. We are attempting to construct a new
material that would be heat resistant and durable enough
to sustain a reaction. We also are working on finding the
optimal combination of the materials to get the most
conductivity out of the blanket.” With that they said their
goodbyes and Maninder continued with his agenda for the
day.
OPTIMIZING THE BLANKET
Environmental Impact
Future of Fusion
While Maninder’s department worked on developing
the materials forming the inside walls of the reactor, he
worked on optimizing the combination of materials within
the blanket. The biggest issue with keeping it safe for the
environment is extracting some of the materials. In recent
times, there has been a much higher precedence put on
preserving the environment and Maninder would like to
keep that trend going [9]. Industries such as coal and oil
energy do not account for the ethical problems associated
with harming the environment. The main element that is
needed for the blanket is lithium [2]. It is commonly
found in ocean water which is very abundant and does not
hurt the environment to extract [2]. With this being the
most abundant element, the environmental impact of
retrieving the others isn’t felt nearly as much as the
drilling for uranium in nuclear fission or coal, oil, or
natural gas in non-renewable energies. Protecting the
environment is deeply imbedded in ethics. Maninder has
always gone around trying to make this clear, and it is one
of the biggest reasons why he is in this industry. He likes
how nuclear fusion is a field that is very high on
protecting the environment and how it has nearly no
carbon footprint what so ever. If one were to look at
nuclear fusion energy and the process that it under goes,
they would see that it is as environmentally friendly as
can be. It essentially uses sea water as its fuel source
because deuterium and tritium are both very easily found
there with the lithium for the blanket being found there as
well [2].
The reporter asks, “How long will it be until nuclear
fusion is able to be used in a commercial setting?” He
responds by saying, “The target for commercial nuclear
fusion reactors to be utilized is by the year 2050 because
that is when the world population is expected to have
grown to such a large number that humans will not be
able to meet the demand for energy [1]. It is critical that
ITER is successful in its mission and that the world can
finally have a truly reliable, clean, and safe power
source.” She follows that question by wondering, “Can
nuclear fusion be a springboard into cold fusion?”
Maninder responds, “Cold fusion isn’t even on the radar
at this point. It is only a theory at this point but it may one
day be possible. The biggest challenge with cold fusion is
getting atoms to combine at room temperature which is
currently not possible [6].”
How Does it Work?
“So, explain the technology that goes into a nuclear
fusion reactor”, the reporter goes on to ask. “The reactor
is what is known as a tokamak reactor [2]. Hydrogen is
fed into the core of the reactor using an advanced pump
that will also be able to extract any excess hydrogen once
the reaction is completed [7]. This reactor uses two very
powerful super magnets to accelerate the ions of hydrogen
to a very extreme speed. This increase in speed causes an
immense amount of heat to be formed and this takes the
ions and transforms them into something that would
resemble a molten soup called plasma [2]. Within this
plasma, the ions of helium, deuterium and tritium,
combine to form helium and energy. This energy must be
captured by a blanket of sorts. This blanket would be
formed mostly of lithium with added aluminum,
vanadium, chromium, manganese, and iron [8]. This
blanket conducts the energy out of the reactor and stores it
in a cell. Finding a material that can contain this immense
heat is one of the biggest challenges in the entire project.
Though there have been rumblings about a treated steel
being a possible material to withstand the heat, we are not
sure that it is the best material so we want to find one that
Economics
Also, in this he must also factor in the cost of
forming this blanket. This could be a very expensive
process so Maninder has to budget his money wisely so to
not waste any money that may help solve other problems
[10]. It would be unethical to be wasteful with the money
that he was allotted because one must also keep in mind
his colleagues and their struggles. Because of the
importance of the blanket in the nuclear reactor, more
money may be allotted for it but if there is some leftover,
it could be used to help reduce the cost of the total project
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Maninder Singh
[9]. Maninder has to look at all the aspects of this process,
including the impact on the environment and the cost of
forming the blanket in his work.
is trying to make a decision. Ethics hold the key to
relating the engineers to the people that will benefit from
their work so they can never be thrown to the wayside
while trying to come to a decision [10].
EVALUATING PROGRESS ON WORK
AND AS ENGINEERS
REFERENCES
[1] S. Lee, S.H. Saw. (2011). “Nuclear Fusion Energy—
Mankind’s Giant Step Forward”. Journal of Fusion
Energy. (Online Article). DOI 10.1007/s10894-011-93907. pp. 398-403.
[2] R. Goldston. (2011) “The Anatomy of Fusion: The
Reactor of the Future”. World Policy Journal. (online
Journal). pp. 41-43
[3] Code of Ethics I. 1. National Society of Professional
Engineers.
(online).
http://www.nspe.org/Ethics/CodeofEthics/index.html.
[4] Code of Ethics. 1. American Nuclear Society.
(Online). http://www.ans.org/about/coe/.
[5] J.E. Fergusson. (2011). “The history of the discovery
of nuclear fission”. Foundations of Chemistry. (Online
Article). DOI 10.1007/s10698-011-9112-2. pp. 145-166.
[6] E.N. Tsyganov. (2012). “Cold Nuclear Fusion”.
Nuclei
Experiment.
(online
article)
DOI
10.1134/S1063778812010140. pp. 1-7
[7] M. Tanaka, K. Kathira, Y. Asakura, T. Oshima.
(2010). “Hydrogen Pump Using a High-Temperature
Proton Conductor for Nuclear Fusion Engineering
Applications”. Solid State Ionics. (online article) pp. 215218
[8] H. Aytekin, E. Tel, R. Baldik, A. Aydin. (2011). “An
Investigation for Ground State Features of Some
Structural Fusion Materials”. Journal of Fusion Energy.
(Online Article). DOI 10.1007/s10894-010-9326-7. pp.
21-25.
[9] R.A. Burgess, M. Davis, M.A. Dyrud, J.R. Hekert,
R.D. Hollander, L. Newton, M.S. Pritchard, P.A.
Vesilind. (2013). “Engineering Ethics: Looking Back,
Looking Forward”. Science and Engineering Ethics.
(Online Article). DOI 10.1007/s11948-012-9374-7. pp.
1395-1404.
[10] J.M. Basart, M. Serra. (2013). “Engineering Ethics
Beyond Engineer’s Ethics”. Science and Engineering
Ethics. (online article). DOI 10.1007/s11948-011-9293-z.
pp. 179-187.
[11] H.E. Klingelhöfer, P. Kurz. (2011). “Financial
valuation of investments in future power generation
technologies: nuclear fusion and CCS in an emissions
trading system”. Central European Journalof Operations
Research. (Online Article). DOI 10.1007/s10100-0110193-8. pp. 415-438.
After working on the blanket, Maninder ends his day
reconvening with the other engineers that work in his
department to see what progress has been made in the
search for a super heat resistant material. There was a
little bit of a breakthrough in finding a more
environmentally friendly way to form the aforementioned
material but this wasn’t a significant enough change so
the material remained tabled as the team of scientists and
engineers went on to continue their work. There wasn’t
anything to report on the front of finding another material
that could contain the heat of the reaction, but Maninder
reassured the others that they just had to keep working at
it. Maninder liked to always have a last word with the
members of his department before they all left for the
night and he had been thinking about ethics all that day
because of the interview he had with CNN. He looked at
the people that he worked with and asked them all to
think to themselves what ethics in engineering are and if
they are doing all that they can to be ethical engineers. He
told them that they don’t have to try to be heroic
engineers, they have to be responsible ones [10]. He
wanted the other engineers to think about how to ensure
that the people that are going to benefit from this project
are going to remain safe [3]. He wanted them to realize
that they are in this to allow the people of the world to
receive affordable energy, which nuclear fusion would be
able to provide [11].
FUSION: EVER THE ETHICAL FIELD
The ethics that go into nuclear fusion can be seen
when looking at the way an engineer approaches his day
at ITER. Maninder was forced to look into the ethics
behind forming new materials and also he had to look into
the ethical disparity between nuclear fusion and fission,
which actually leads to many of the concerns that people
have about the ethicality of nuclear fusion because it is
not understood that they are two totally different things.
Many of the issues that surround nuclear fusion ethically
pertain to the environment. Engineers must follow their
code of ethics and to do this they must make some
sacrifices, such as when Maninder tabled the material that
was heat resistant because of how it could have hurt the
environment, in hopes that either there could be a new,
more environmentally friendly process developed to form
the material or another material that could withstand the
heat could be discovered. Ethics is imbedded in
engineering and can never be forgotten when an engineer
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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Maninder Singh
I would like to thank Katarina Klett for her assistance
and support during the process of writing my paper. I
would like to thank Katie Fetch for allowing me to have a
slight reprieve from the paper at times and giving me a
free donut. Also I would like to thank Kevin Clark for
looking over my paper. Lastly, I would like to thank all of
the residents from the fourth floor of Forbes Hall for their
assistance during my research process.
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Maninder Singh
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