ITER : The Next Step for Fusion Power

December 8, 2005. Parliament of AustraliaStanding Committee on Industry and Resources

Prof John O’Connor

The University of

Newcastle

Dr Boyd Blackwell

Australian National

University

Dr Matthew Hole

Australian National

University

The University of SydneyAUSTRALIA

FLINDERS UNIVERSITYADELAIDE AUSTRALIA

THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

UNIVERSITY OF CANBERRA

Australian Nuclear Science &Tec. Org.

Australian Ins. of Nuclear Science & Eng.

Who are the Australian ITER Forum?

● Scientists and engineers from multiple research disciplines / institutes supporting a mission orientated goal :

controlled fusion as an energy source

● Institution list is growing….

What is fusion ?Controlled fusion :

Comparison of Energy Release per reaction :

Fusion (D2 + T3 He4 + n ) 17,600,000 units

Fission (U235 + n Xe134 + Sr100 + n) 200,000,000 units

Coal (C6H2 + 6.5 O2 6 CO2

+ H 20) 30 unitsUnits are electron volts

Deuterium, Tritium are hydrogen isotopes.

Millions of years of fuel can be extracted from water

Energy gain: 450:1

Fusion : a safe route to nuclear power

Controlled Fusion “Magnetic confinement” use of

magnetic fields to confine a plasma :

e.g. tokamak

Fusion is NOT a chain reaction● No meltdown● Not useful as a weapon

(magnetically confined fusion)

Fusion power requires:● High Temperature(Ti) 100 Million °C

● High density(nD)

● Long confinement time(τE)

“Magnetic Bottle”

Environmentally/politically friendly:● Minimal greenhouse gas emissions● No long term radioactive waste● Abundant fuel (water)

Low level waste, compared to fission

Present ferritic technology allows a reduction of >3,000 over 100 years

100% recycling is possible after 100 years

Using future Vanadium alloy structures, fusion is 1,000,000x less radioactive after 30 years than fission. http://fi.neep.wisc.edu http://www.ofes.fusion.doe.gov

Figure 1: Comparison of fission and fusion radioactivity after decommissioning

Fuels are abundant, Australia has raw materials

Conservatively estimated Earth fuel reserves are : ~ 10,000 years of D-T, ~ millions of years of D-D

T. J. Dolan, Fus. Res., 2000*Australian Government, Geoscience Australia, 2005.

Fuels:

●Deuterium: “unlimited” – 1 litre tap water 800 litres oil

●Tritium: bred from Lithium: > 10,000 years supply Australia has 4%* of world’s resource.

Advanced Materials:

●Vanadium, Tantalum, Niobium, Zirconium

Australia has considerable mineral resources

Opportunity for technology development/Value Added

Fusion power plant designs

Final Report of the European Fusion Power Plant Conceptual Design Study, April 13, 2005

Fusion progress comparison to #

CPU transistors per unit area

Fusion progress exceeds Moore’s law scaling

ITER

Figure 2: Progress of fusion research

ITER : “the way”

Plasma conditions

15MAIp, plasma current

6.2m, 2.0mMajor,minor radius

~10Q = power out/ power in

500MWTotal Fusion power

80106 °C<Ti>

73MWAuxillary heating, current drive

837 m3Plasma Volume

5.3 TeslaMagnetic field

ITER Objectives and Consortium

● ITER is a growing consortium of nations and alliances under the auspices of the IAEA. Current members include European Union, USA, China, Korea, Japan, Russia and now India (Dec. 6).

● ITER is one of the world’s largest science projects.

● Construction / 10 year operation costs : ~ AUD$10bn / $6bn

● Highest funding priority of the worlds’ largest physical sciences research body (US, Dep. Of Energy).

Programmatic : demonstrate fusion energy for peaceful purposes

Physics: “Grand Challenge” burning plasma science

Technology : integrated operation and materials testing

● Objectives

Fusion development time-scales

Source: Accelerated development of fusion power. I. Cook et al. 2005

Scope of Australian Government

Energy White paper (2004)

2005 20502020

ITER

today’s experiments

materials testing facility (IFMIF)

demonstration power-plant (DEMO)

commercial power-plants

R &D on alternative concepts and advanced materials

2010 2015 2025 2030 2035 2040 2045

Australian has strong expertise in fusion

1934 Sir Mark Oliphant discovers He3+, T, and D-D reaction

1946 Toroidal confinement system research pioneers: Peter

Thonemann (Australian) and Sir George Thomson (UK)

1958 Sir Mark Oliphant commences plasma physics research at ANU

1964 – now : Fusion plasma research at ANU,

UNSW, Flinders University,

Sydney University and ANSTO

Fusion science needs to be a national research priority.

To preserve and grow …

Benefits and Opportunities

Benefits to Australia ● Energy supply and security● Near-term economic and political benefits● Science and technology benefits● Training and retention of skills● Responding to climate change● Fostering international research links● Scientific credibility● Enhance Australia’s position in the IAEA

Resources, Processing, Value Adding● Large resources of rare metals (eg Li, V, Ta) for construction

and fuelling● Development of new technologies and processes.

Fusion is part of a low C02 energy solution

Source: Australian Government Energy White paper

Renewable energy

Fusion power offers:● base-load replacement to fossil

fuels● high energy-density supply,

powering cities & industry● power grid stability

●zero nuclear proliferation

●very low level radioactive waste

●universal accessibility of fuel

Figure 3: Past and future Australian electricity sources

Plus…

Fusion – clean, safe nuclear power for the future

“bottling the sun”

RECOMMENDATIONS

1 – Australia negotiates a subscription to ITER as a matter of urgency.

2 – A national or international centre be established to consolidate Australia’s research efforts in fusion related research

Annual Radiation Dose Source (in microsieverts)

Where you live

What is in you

What you eatMedical and Travel

Living within 10km Nuclear power plant

Living within 10km of a coal fired power plant

~ 2000 microsieverts per annum

Fusion Relevant Minerals

158.7 kT80.7 kT (21.5%)Titanium (Ti) 3

2147 kT194 kT (4.3%)Niobium (Ni)

40.9 kT14.9 kT (40.5%)Zirconium (Zr) 3

154.2 kT 53 kT (94.6 %)Tantalum (Ta)

5061 kT2586 kT (19.9 %)Vanadium (V)

257 kT 170 kT (4.1%)Lithium (Li)

Australian TOTAL 2

Australian EDR 1 (% world )

Mineral

Fuel

Structural

Super-conductor

Source: Australian Government, Geosciences Australia, 2005

1 Economic Demonstrated Resource2 demonstrated plus inferred resources 3 inferred from mineral sand deposits

Fusion – clean, safe nuclear power for the future

“bottling the sun”

Fusion

Base-load energy generation yes

High energy density yes

Power grid stability yes

Nuclear non proliferation yes

Radioactive waste 100 years

Universal accessibility of fuel yes

Terrorist Potential low

Large scale availability ~50 years

primary energy consumption : 1903-1973: Australian Historical Records

1974-1995 Australian Bureau of Agricultural and resource Economics

GDP : 1901-1963, Portrait of the Family in the Total Economy, Snooks G.D.

1974-1995 Australian Bureau of Agricultural and resource Economics

(Australian Commodity Statistics)

Australian standard of living tracks energy use

Source: Hamilton and Turton 2002

Australia is the most CO2 polluting nation on Earth.

1998 Per capita greenhouse emissions for selected industrial nations

0.00

1 $

/ kW

hr internal costs: costs of constructing, fuelling, operating, and disposing of power stations

external costs: “estimated” impact costs to the environment, public and worker health,

Prospects for fusion electricity, I. Cook et al. Fus. Eng. & Des. 63-34, pp25-33, 2002

Fusion power will be economically competitive

The estimated development cost for fusion

energy is essentially unchanged since 1980

Economic / Scientific Spin-offs

MHD

Coal

Energy

Project

Aerosp

ace

Applica

tions

Hydrog

en

Storage

Solar

Therma

l

Collect

or

Material

s ITER First Wall

Materials Science

700oC

Steam

Project

Fusion triple product nD ETi>3 1021 m-3 keV s

Conditions for fusion power● To achieve fusion products need to be heated to 100 million degrees.

● At these extreme conditions matter

exists in the plasma state

● “Lawson” ignition criterion : Fusion power > heat loss

100 million °C

● To achieve adequate output to produce ongoing energy production we need

● High Temperature(Ti) 100 Million °C

● High number density(nD)

● Long confinement time(τE)

“Magnetic Bottle”

Reaction cross-section

Progress in magnetically confined fusion

Joint European Torus : 1983 -

Fusion –

bottling the

sun safely…

A responsible low C02 emission energy future

requires investment in a blend of nuclear +

renewable power technologies

Fuels and raw materials abundant

Australia: 217,000T

World: 4,110,000T

Manufactured: Li+n→ He + T

(produced inside

reactor)

1 part in ~10,000 in water

Abundance

Deuterium Tritium Lithium

● Estimated Earth fuel reserves are : ~ millions years of D-T, ~ billion years of D-D

T. J. Dolan, Fus. Res., 2000Australian Government, Geoscience Australia, 2005.

Energy lifetimes