Fusion breeding as an approach to sustainable energy
- PDF / 1,513,262 Bytes
- 14 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 96 Downloads / 179 Views
Fusion breeding as an approach to sustainable energy Wallace Manheimer1 Received: 28 August 2020 / Accepted: 2 November 2020 © The Author(s) 2020 OPEN
Abstract This article examines an approach for sustainable energy called fusion breeding. This is the use of 14 meV fusion neutrons to breed fuel for thermal nuclear reactors. Currently thermal nuclear reactors use for fuel, only the isotope of uranium, 235 U, which is 0.7% of the total resource. In order for nuclear power to be sustainable, it is necessary to breed nuclear fuel (233U or 239Pu) from fertile material (238U or 232Th). This resource could supply tens of terawatts for thousands of years. By any reasonable criterion, it both sustainable and carbon free. While most efforts at breeding envision fission reactors of one type or another, fusion is also a possible approach to breeding. Not only that, fusion has many advantages as a route for breeding that fission simply does not have. This article makes the case for fusion breeding.
1 Introduction While sustainable energy might mean different things for different people, for the purpose of this paper we will define it as source capable of delivering tens of terawatts (TWs) for thousands of years in an environmentally and economically viable way. This paper explores one option for energy sustainability, fusion breeding. This is the use of 14 meV neutrons from a fusion reactor to breed fuel for thermal nuclear reactors. A thermal reactor is one that used low energy neutrons, about room temperature to 1000 degrees C for the nuclear reactor. The author has studied this for over 20 years [1] and has recently published three open access review articles on the topic [2–4]. The first is focused on the fusion community, the second on a general technically literate community, and the third on the general physics community. Each one has an Introduction which is a general summary for lay readers. Reference [3] also has a comparison of nuclear power in France with solar power in Germany, indicating that at least at this time, nuclear France easily wins the competition. France has both much cheaper electricity and half the C O2 emission per capita than Germany. This paper is a much briefer summary, addressed principally to those concerned with sustainability. An excellent source of relevant energy data is the BP Energy Outlook, which is published every year. Figure 1 is a plot of the energy use by region, end use sector, and fuel as a function of year, taken from their 2019 issue. To the left of the vertical dashed line is the historical record, to the right, their scenarios for the future. As fossil fuels depend on mined quantities that could well run out in decades, or a few centuries at most, depending on the estimate and rate of usage, the only ‘sustainable’ fuels on their graphs are hydro and renewables (i.e. solar). In the more developed parts of the world, virtually all the resources of hydro power have already been tapped. In the less developed parts, there is still considerable potential, especially in Africa.
Data Loading...
