Nuclear Fusion
they offer some major advantages over other power sources. They will use abundant sources of fuel,
they will not leak radiation above normal background levels and they will produce less radioactive waste
than current fission reactors.
Fusion reactors are now in experimental stages at several laboratories
A consortium from the United States, Russia, Europe and Japan has proposed to build a fusion reactor
called the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in Cadarache, France, to
demonstrate the feasibility of using sustained fusion reactions for making electricity.
Isotopes
Isotopes are atoms of the same element that have the same number of protons and electrons but a
different number of neutrons. Some common isotopes in fusion are:
is a hydrogen isotope with one proton and no neutrons. It is the most common form of hydrogen
and the most common element in the universe.
Protium
is a hydrogen isotope with one proton and one neutron. It is not radioactive and can be
extracted from seawater.
Deuterium
is a hydrogen isotope with one proton and two neutrons. It is radioactive, with a half-life of
about 10 years. Tritium does not occur naturally but can be made by bombarding lithium with neutrons.
Tritium
Helium-3
is a helium isotope with two protons and one neutron.
Helium-4
is the most common, naturally occurring form of helium, with two protons and two neutrons.
Physics of Nuclear Fusion: Reactions
Current nuclear reactors use nuclear fission to generate power. In nuclear fission, you get energy from
splitting one atom into two atoms. In a conventional nuclear reactor, high-energy neutrons split heavy
atoms of uranium, yielding large amounts of energy, radiation and radioactive wastes that last for long
periods of time
In nuclear fusion, you get energy when two atoms join together to form one. In a fusion reactor,
hydrogen atoms come together to form helium atoms, neutrons and vast amounts of energy. It's the
same type of reaction that powers hydrogen bombs and the sun. This would be a cleaner, safer, more
efficient and more abundant source of power than nuclear fission.
There are several types of fusion reactions. Most involve the isotopes of hydrogen called deuterium and
tritium:
Proton-proton chain - This sequence is the predominant fusion reaction scheme used by stars such as
the sun. Two pairs of protons form to make two deuterium atoms. Each deuterium atom combines with
a proton to form a helium-3 atom. Two helium-3 atoms combine to form beryllium-6, which is unstable.
Beryllium-6 decays into two helium-4 atoms. These reactions produce high energy particles (protons,
electrons, neutrinos, positrons) and radiation (light, gamma rays)
Deuterium-deuterium reactions - Two deuterium atoms combine to form a helium-3 atom and a
neutron.
Deuterium-tritium reactions - One atom of deuterium and one atom of tritium combine to form a
helium-4 atom and a neutron. Most of the energy released is in the form of the high-energy neutron.
Conceptually, harnessing nuclear fusion in a reactor is a no-brainer. But it has been extremely difficult
for scientists to come up with a controllable, non-destructive way of doing it
Conditions for Nuclear Fusion
When hydrogen atoms fuse, the nuclei must come together. However, the protons in each nucleus will
tend to repel each other because they have the same charge (positive).
To achieve fusion, you need to create special conditions to overcome this tendency. Here are the
conditions that make fusion possible:
High temperature - The high temperature gives the hydrogen atoms enough energy to overcome the
electrical repulsion between the protons.
Fusion requires temperatures about 100 million Kelvin (approximately six times hotter than the sun's
core).
Plasma is a high-energy state of matter in
which all the electrons are stripped from atoms and move freely about.
gravity compressing this mass
in the core. We must use energy from microwaves, lasers and ion particles to achieve these
temperatures.
High pressure
- Pressure squeezes the hydrogen atoms together.
The sun uses its mass and the force of gravity to squeeze hydrogen atoms together in its core.
We must squeeze hydrogen atoms together by using intense magnetic fields, powerful lasers or ion
beams.
With current technology, we can only achieve the temperatures and pressures necessary to make
deuterium-tritium fusion possible. Deuterium-deuterium fusion requires higher temperatures that may
be possible in the future. Ultimately, deuterium-deuterium fusion will be better because it is easier to
extract deuterium from seawater than to make tritium from lithium. Also, deuterium is not radioactive,
and deuterium-deuterium reactions will yield more energy.
Fusion Reactors: Magnetic Confinement
There are two ways to achieve the temperatures and pressures necessary for hydrogen fusion to take
place:
Magnetic confinement uses magnetic and electric fields to heat and squeeze the hydrogen plasma. The
ITER project in France is using this method.
Inertial confinement uses laser beams or ion beams to squeeze and heat the hydrogen plasma. Scientists
are studying this experimental approach at the National Ignition Facility of Lawrence Livermore
Laboratory in the United States.
Here's how the process will work:
Magnetic-confinement fusion process
The fusion reactor will heat a stream of deuterium and tritium fuel to form high-temperature plasma. It
will squeeze the plasma so that fusion can take place.
The lithium blankets outside the plasma reaction chamber will absorb high-energy neutrons from the
fusion reaction to make more tritium fuel. The blankets will also get heated by the neutrons.
The heat will be transferred by a water-cooling loop to a heat exchanger to make steam.
The steam will drive electrical turbines to produce electricity.
The steam will be condensed back into water to absorb more heat from the reactor in the heat
exchanger.
Fusion Reactors: Inertial Confinement
The National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory is experimenting with using laser
beams to induce fusion. In the NIF device, 192 laser beams will focus on single point in a 10-meterdiameter target chamber called a hohlraum. A hohlraum is "a cavity whose walls are in radiative
equilibrium with the radiant energy within the cavity
At the focal point inside the target chamber, there will be a pea-sized pellet of deuterium-tritium
encased in a small, plastic cylinder. The power from the lasers (1.8 million joules) will heat the cylinder
and generate X-rays. The heat and radiation will convert the pellet into plasma and compress it until
fusion occurs. The fusion reaction will be short-lived, about one-millionth of a second, but will yield 50
to 100 times more energy than is needed to initiate the fusion reaction. A reactor of this type would
have multiple targets that would be ignited in succession to generate sustained heat production.
Scientists estimate that each target can be made for as little as $0.25, making the fusion power plant
cost efficient.
Like the magnetic-confinement fusion reactor, the heat from inertial-confinement fusion will be passed
to a heat exchanger to make steam for producing electricity.
Applications of Fusion
The main application for fusion is in making electricity. Nuclear fusion can provide a safe, clean energy
source for future generations with several advantages over current fission reactors:
Abundant fuel supply - Deuterium can be readily extracted from seawater, and excess tritium can be
made in the fusion reactor itself from lithium, which is readily available in the Earth's crust. Uranium for
fission is rare, and it must be mined and then enriched for use in reactors.
Safe - The amounts of fuel used for fusion are small compared to fission reactors. This is so that
uncontrolled releases of energy do not occur. Most fusion reactors make less radiation than the natural
background radiation we live with in our daily lives.
Clean - No combustion occurs in nuclear power (fission or fusion), so there is no air pollution.
Less nuclear waste - Fusion reactors will not produce high-level nuclear wastes like their fission
counterparts, so disposal will be less of a problem. In addition, the wastes will not be of weapons-grade
nuclear materials as is the case in fission reactors.
NASA is currently looking into developing small-scale fusion reactors for powering deep-space rockets.
Fusion propulsion would boast an unlimited fuel supply (hydrogen), would be more efficient and would
ultimately lead to faster rockets.
Q. What is nuclear fusion and what are its uses if used as a technology in nuclear reactors? Bring out the
difference between ITER’s and NIF’s approach in harnessing nuclear fusion energy.
by Ashutosh Katiyar
References
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-international/unlimited-energy-within-grasp-after-fusionmilestone/article5215658.ece
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