Controlled Thermonuclear Fusion

The following sections are included:

• Acknowledgments
• Contents
• Foreword
• Units

The following sections are included:

• Atoms
• Nuclei
• Nuclear reactions
• Reference

The following sections are included:

• Fusion reactions
• Hydrogen — the fuel of the Sun and other stars
• Deuterium reactions
• The thermonuclear regime
• The ignition and sustainability of a thermonuclear reaction
• The steady regime: the Lawson criterion
• The explosive regime
• References

In order to achieve thermonuclear fusion, the active medium should react at a temperature of about 100 million K (10 keV). Well below such temperatures, hydrogen and its isotopes, whose atoms have a single electron, are already completely ionized gases. An ionized material highly sensitive to electromagnetic forces is called plasma. Knowledge about this kind of (the fourth) state of matter has improved tremendously over the last 60 years thanks to the research on fusion. Many texts deal with plasma physics. References [1] to [4] are choices among classic or recent books.

The following sections are included:

• The basics
• Current-carrying plasmas
• Stability
• Closed configurations
• Equilibrium and stability of a current-carrying plasma ring
• Charged particle trajectories in a current-carrying plasma ring
• More instabilities in the torus
• Compact tori
• Stellarators
• References

In the late sixties, it was proven that, in tokamak T-3 at the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow, hot plasma could be magnetically confined for durations that other devices were unable to achieve. With this result came an improved confidence about magnetic fusion. The way was open for important research and development programs to be carried out in the USSR (for as long as this entity existed), the USA, Japan and Europe.

The following sections are included:

• A unifying project
• How ITER looks like
• ITER and safety
• The question of materials
• IFMIF (International Fusion Material Irradiation Facility)
• Controversies
• References

In parallel with tokamak developments, laser-induced inertial confinement proceeded with similar dynamics: rapid progresses during the 1970s and 1980s followed by a plateau which corresponds to the design and the construction of megajoule lasers, instruments that are required for decisive advances…

The following sections are included:

• Laser energy and thermonuclear gain: the megajoule milestone
• High-power lasers
• Megajoule lasers
• Beam to target
• Spontaneous or triggered ignition?
• An alternative solution: particle beams
• The “Z-pinch” is back
• References

In Latin ITER means the way. Which one? Fast track or dead end? Actually, no one knows whether or not ITER will lead to a profitable electricity production in a further generation of up-scaled tokamaks. Concentrating most of the available subsidies and manpower on a single project for magnetic fusion is a questionable policy. A similar doubt applies to the emphasis put on high-power lasers in the realm of inertial fusion…

The following sections are included:

• Achilles and the tortoise, a paradox revisited
• Conditions for a power plant
• Energy cycles
• Fusion in the nuclear fuel cycle
• A glimpse of the future
• A touch of economy
• Tritium breeding and resources
• References

How long before a nuclear fusion reactor will be available? Researches started in the early 1950s. More than a half century later, the layperson might think no effective result was obtained, only pharaonic facilities being built whose objectives are dubious: ITER and megajoule lasers. In the 20th century, fusion used to be advertised as an energy source to be operational in the next 10 to 20 years. Nowadays predictions about an industrial development, if any, state it could take place in the second half of the 21st century…

The following sections are included:

• Glossary
• Acronyms
• Selected Bibliography
• Index