An Indispensable Truth How Fusion Power Can Save the Planet
Both global warming and oil shortage can be solved by controlled fusion, a clean power source that will serve mankind for millennia.The idea of hydrogen fusion as well as its difficulties are presented in non-technical language to dispel the notion that f
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Francis F. Chen
An Indispensable Truth How Fusion Power Can Save the Planet
Francis F. Chen Department of Electrical Engineering University of California at Los Angeles Los Angeles, CA USA [email protected]
ISBN 978-1-4419-7819-6 e-ISBN 978-1-4419-7820-2 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-7820-2 Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London Library of Congress Control Number: 2011922489 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Preface
Al Gore’s book and video, An Inconvenient Truth, has raised the public consciousness about the dangers of global warming and climate change. This book is intended to convey the message that there is a solution. A solution not only to global warming caused by anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide, but also to the depletion of fossil fuels and to the wars in the Middle East related to our dependence on their supply of oil. The solution is the rapid development of hydrogen fusion energy. This energy source is inexhaustible (it is seawater); no greenhouse gases are emitted; and the dangers of nuclear power are avoided. Most legislators and journalists have regarded fusion as a pipe dream with very little chance of success. They are misinformed, because times have changed. Achieving fusion energy is difficult, but the progress made in the past two decades has been remarkable. Mother Nature has actually been kind to us, giving us beneficial effects that were totally unexpected. The physics issues are now understood well enough that serious engineering can begin. An Apollo 11-type program can bring fusion online in time to stabilize climate change before it is too late. Seven nations have joined together to form and share the cost of ITER, a large machine which is an important step in achieving fusion. These nations contain more than half the world’s population. A community of international workers, as well as schools for their children, has been set up at the ITER site in Cadarache, France. More on ITER will come later. There is a plan and a timetable to pursue the ultimate solution to civilization’s most pressing problems. There is no downside to fusion. So much has been written about climate change and alternate energy sources that almost every magazi
