Fusion Power: Reasons for Higher Priority
John K. Landis' interesting and authoritative summary of the present status of research and development in fusi6n power in the October issue 150, 658 (1973)l makes a convincing case for the availability of commercial scale power from atomic fusion by the year 2010. Very recent developments in this area suggest that with proper handling and good luck, fusion power could he available in no more than a decade or two. Considering the paramount importance of this all but inexhaustible energy source to a world crippled by diminishing supplies of fossil fuels and brawling over inadequate and inequitable energy availability, it would appear in the best interests of all to facilitate by any available means the development of a fusion energy capability. In the past few months the Atomic Energy Commission has declassified information on kindling the fusion reaction with high-powered lasers. Use of this technique has all but eliminated the very critical problem of containing the plasma during fusion. Thus, when a number of lasers are focused on a droplet or frozen pellet of deuterium or deuterium and lithium, the resulting explosion of the outer layers of the droplet creates an implosion such that the combined energies of the lasers can he used to create the conditions for fusion. This amounts to producing miniature H-bombs under controlled conditions. In one configuration, each fuel droplet entering the combustion chamber is ignited by lasers and the chamber is scavenged between explosions. In a second, but still not perfected process, a continuous reaction might be maintained, possibly by allowing each explosion to trigger the next. By combining what now is known about magnetic containment of plasma under fusion conditions with laser ignition techniques, fusion reactors of previously unanticipated efficiency can he designed. Interestingly, Russian scientists a t Moscow's Lebedov Institute appear to be two or three years ahead of the rest of the world in the development of laser-fusion technology. The problem of harnessing energy from mini-bombs may not be as difficult as some have thought in the past. One method is simply to use the pressure and heat in conventional ways-for example, by using heat exchangers coupled to direct cycle gas turbines or to secondary steam turbines as Dr. Landis described. Other methods rely on solid state devices to effect the direct conversion from heat released in fusion to electric current. One of these devices, developed by R. F. Post at Lawrence Laboratories, involves direct current production by absorption of neutrons from the reaction into a solid matrix. Soviet scientists have recently described a direct heat-to-electricity solid state converter, and the use of pressure-sensitive crystals to make the direct conversion to electricity is being tested. These advances have breathed such new optimism into nuclear engineering laboratories around the world that many workers now believe fusion reactors will be operating by 1980 or a few years thereafter.
I editorially speaking
Financial support currently is the main factor limiting the rate of progress. The present world-wide fusion research effort is roughly equivalent to $120 million annually, with 40% of it taking place in the Soviet Union, 16% in the U.S., and the balance in the U. K., Western Europe, and Japan. The total funds spent on U S . fusion research and development since the program began in 1950 are about the same as those spent in one Apollo moon shot. Despite the new advances and our own energy problems, the AEC has not substantially increased its support levels-as measured in inflation-adjusted dollars-since 1964. This would appear to he a serious error. For a relatively modest investment a t very little risk of failure we could develop the capability to tap an inexpensive, permanent, and virtually limitless energy supply. This energy would cost less than one percent the cost of coal on a per-calorie basis. Each gallon of sea water would provide deuterium energy equivalent to 300 gallons of gasoline. Energy from nuclear fusion could he used not only to eradicate existing energy shortages and inequities, hut it could provide developing countries with their first real opportunity to achieve a quality of life comparable to that in developed nations. In addition it could lead to reduced tensions in the world, especially those caused by dependence on fossil fuels. It could he used, for example, to desalinate water, to extract minerals from the oceans, and to recycle wastes so as to approach a closed materials economy. Its pollution effects, biological hazards, and susceptibility to sabotage would he minimal. Its cost would make it available to rich and poor alike. Some observers have suggested that the United States is so heavily invested in the industry and technology of fossil fuel extraction and in fossil fuel energy conversion machinery that a switch to such a radical new technology is too great a psychological and economic hurdle to overcome easily. By providing only minimal support to fusion research and development, commercial scale capability can he postponed until just before we really need it. While granting the validity of parts of the above argument, one must hope a t least that we have not yet reached the depths of callousness and short-sightedness such a position reveals. Unfortunately, there are millions of human beings on this earth who desperately need the benefits a cheaper, more abundant energy supply would provide. They may not be able to wait until we need it. Moreover, there would appear to be obvious advantages in world trade and good will to those who provide leadership in this vital area. In recent weeks much has been made of the notion that the greatest safeguard to world peace is U.S. Military might with its enormous budgets for new weapons systems. Fusion power probably could be made available for about the price of developing one new bomber. Of the choices available, somehow the investment in fusion power seems more humanely linked to peace. WTL
Volume 50, Number 11, November 1973
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