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ABSTRACT
Nuclear reactions are capable of releasing huge quantities of energy. Such reactions
can be achieved either by the nuclear fission (splitting. of elements of high atomic number or
by the nuclear fusion (joining. of elements with low atomic number. In astrophysics, fusion
reactions power the stars and produce all but the lightest elements. The most efficient
reaction to utilize fusion on earth is the DT fusion reaction in which nuclei of the two
Hydrogen isotopes Deuterium (D. and Tritium (T. are forced together to overcome the
rejection due to their electric charge and to allow them to fuse due to the strong nuclear
binding force between them. The product of this reaction is a Helium nucleus and a neutron,
both with very high kinetic energy.
Research in controlled nuclear fusion and its associated field plasma physics has
progressed steadily for several decades and is now at a crossroad. The construction of a new
international experimental machine ITER, to be built in worldwide international co-
operation, has been decided. ITER aims to prove the scientific and technological feasibility
of fusion energy. With this machine and its goals, controlled nuclear fusion makes the
decisive transition to a new area: from a time where plasma physics and nuclear
engineering were separate disciplines to a time where plasma physics and nuclear
engineering will be intimately intertwined. With a foreseen power of 400 MW, ITER will
produce 1.5 x 1020 neutrons/s; equivalent to the number of neutrons/s produced by a 2.2
GWth fission reactor. Fusion will need the nuclear engineering expertise. The paper
introduces nuclear fusion from basic principles common to fusion and fission. The
differences between fission and fusion, the reasons for them and the consequences are
pointed out. Different research lines were followed to achieve the conditions for a self-
sustaining controlled thermonuclear burn. Examples of major hurdles, which have been
overcome, highlight the progress of research in magnetic confinement. Though challenges
remain, ITER is likely to show the feasibility of fusion energy. The promise of fusion energy
opens up new perspectives and opportunities for the development of fission energy and could
lead to better boundary conditions for fission energy in the near future.

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1. Introduction
Even though renewable resources will probably be able to meet a greater proportion
of the World's energy requirements than they do at present, experts agree that they will not be
able to satisfy the total demand. New energy options must therefore be developed - systems
which are optimally safe, environment-friendly and economical. Controlled thermonuclear
fusion is one of these rare options.
JET and ITER are fusion devices of the "tokomak" type. The JET Tokomak of the European
Community, based in Abingdon (UK. is the largest and most powerful in the World.
Worldwide cooperation involving Europe, Japan, Russia, USA, China, South Korea
and India has agreed to site ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor . at
Cadarache in France. The start of construction will be in 2007 with construction time of
about 10 years. Around 600 scientists, engineers, technicians and other personnel will work
on the device for approximately twenty years.
Fusion devices of "stellarator" type: TJ-II is being operated at Madrid and Wendelstein 7-X
is being built at Griswold. Upon completion in 2012 the latter will be the world's largest
experiment of the stellarator type.
Fusion powers the sun and stars as hydrogen atoms fuse together to form helium, and
matter is converted into energy. Hydrogen, heated to very high temperatures, changes from a
gas to plasma in which the negatively charged electrons are separated from the positively
charged atomic nuclei (ions .. Normally, fusion is not possible because the positively charged
nuclei naturally repel each other. But as the temperature increases the ions move faster, and
they collide at speeds high enough to overcome the normal repulsion. The nuclei can then
fuse, causing a release of energy.
The overall reaction in the sun is "burning" hydrogen to make helium:
4 1H + 2 e --> 4He + 2 neutrinos + 6 photons
Each time this reaction occurs, 26 million electronvolts (MeV . of energy are released.

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Fig 1.1The Sun

In the sun, massive gravitational forces create the right conditions for this, but on
Earth they are much harder to achieve. Fusion fueldifferent isotopes of hydrogenmust be
heated to extreme temperatures of some 100 million degrees Celsius, and must be kept dense
enough, and confined for long enough (at least one second ., to trigger the energy release.
The aim of the controlled fusion research program is to achieve "ignition", which occurs
when enough fusion reactions take place for the process to become self-sustaining, with fresh
fuel then being added to continue it.

Fig1.2Fusion Particles

In principle, fusion has some extremely attractive features. The big advantage of
fusion compared with fossil-fuel-based energy production is its relatively small fuel
requirements. For the same amount of energy, fusion requires about six orders of magnitude
(~106 . less fuel compared with chemical energy sources (coal, oil, etc. .. A convenient way

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to think about this is to consider that the hydrogen in an ordinary cup of tap water contains
the energy equivalent of a full tank of motor gasoline in an automobile. That is, the
approximately one drop of heavy water in that cup could, through fusion, provide as much
energy as 20 gallons of motor gasoline.

2. Nuclear fusion
The aim of fusion research is to utilize the energy source of the sun and stars here on
earth: A fusion power plant is to derive energy from fusion of atomic nuclei. Under terrestrial
conditions this can most rapidly be achieved with the two hydrogen isotopes, deuterium and
tritium. These fuse to form helium, thus releasing neutrons and large quantities of energy:
One gram of fuel could yield in a power plant 90 000 kilowatt-hours of energy, i. e. the
combustion heat derived from 11 tons of coal.
The basic substances needed for the fusion process, viz. deuterium and lithium, from
which tritium is produced in the power plant, are available throughout the world in almost
inexhaustible quantities. A cubic meter of water contains 34 grams of deuterium the energy
equivalent of 300000 litters of oil. The oceans, the seas and lakes could supply enough
deuterium for a 1000 reactors over a millions of years. With special conditions fusion needs
an ignition temperature of 100 million degrees.

Fig 2.1Fusion Reaction

With current technology, the reaction most readily feasible is between the nuclei of the two
heavy forms (isotopes . of hydrogendeuterium (D . and tritium (T .. Each D-T fusion event
releases 17.6 MeV (2.8 x 10-12 joule, compared with 200 MeV for uranium-235 (235U .

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fission .. Deuterium occurs naturally in seawater (30 grams per cubic meter ., which makes it
very abundant relative to other energy resources. Tritium does not occur naturally and is
radioactive, with a half-life of around 12 years. It can be made in a conventional nuclear
reactor, or in the present context, bred in a fusion system from lithium. Lithium is found in
large quantities (30 parts per million . in the Earth's crust and in weaker concentrations in the
sea. While the D-T reaction is the main focus of attention, long-term hopes are for a D-D
reaction, but this requires much higher temperatures.
In a fusion reactor, the concept is that neutrons will be absorbed in a blanket
containing lithium which surrounds the core. The lithium is then transformed into tritium and
helium. The blanket must be thick enough (about 1 meter . to slow down the neutrons. This
heats the blanket, and a coolant flowing through it then transfers the heat away to produce
steam which can be used to generate electricity by conventional methods. The difficulty has
been to develop a device that can heat the D-T fuel to a high enough temperature and confine
it long enough so that more energy is released through fusion reactions than is used to get the
reaction going.
At present, two different experimental approaches are being studied: fusion energy by
magnetic confinement (MFE . and fusion by inertial confinement (ICF .. The first method
uses strong magnetic fields to trap the hot plasma. The second involves compressing a
hydrogen pellet by smashing it with strong lasers or particle beams.

3 . Magnetic confinement (MFE)

In magnetic confinement (MFE)., hundreds of cubic meters of D-T plasma at a
density of less than a milligram per cubic meter are confined by a magnetic field at a few
atmospheres pressure and heated to fusion temperature.
Magnetic fields are ideal for confining plasma because the electrical charges on the
separated ions and electrons mean that they follow the magnetic field lines. The aim is to
prevent the particles from coming into contact with the reactor walls as this will dissipate
their heat and slow them down. The most effective magnetic configuration is toroidal, shaped
like a thin doughnut, in which the magnetic field is curved around to form a closed loop. For
proper confinement, this toroidal field must have superimposed upon it a perpendicular field
component (a poloidal field .. The result is a magnetic field with force lines following spiral
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(helical . paths, along and around which the plasma particles are guided. There are several
types of toroidal confinement systems, the most important being tokamaks, stellarators and
reversed field pinch (RFP). devices.
Scheme of the tokomak principle: arrangement of magnetic field coils and the
resulting magnetic field that confines the plasma
The word tokomak means "toroidal chamber" in Russian. It is a magnetic fusion
device that is in a shape of a torus (e.g., a doughnut .. In a tokomak, the toroidal field is
created by a series of coils evenly spaced around the torus-shaped reactor, and the poloidal
field is created by a strong electric current flowing through the plasma. In a stellarator, the
helical lines of force are produced by a series of coils which may themselves be helical in
shape. But no current is induced in the plasma. RFP devices have the same toroidal and
poloidal components as a tokomak, but the current flowing through the plasma is much
stronger and the direction of the toroidal field within the plasma is reversed.

Fig 3.1Principle of Tokomak

In tokamaks and RFP devices, the current flowing through the plasma also serves to
heat it to a temperature of about 10 million degrees Celsius. Beyond that, additional heating
systems are needed to achieve the temperatures necessary for fusion. In stellarators, these
heating systems have to supply all the energy needed.
The tokomak (toroidalnya kamera ee magnetnaya katushkatorus-shaped magnetic
chamber . was designed in 1951 by Soviet physicists Andrei Sakharov and Igor Tamm.
Tokamaks operate within limited parameters outside which sudden losses of energy

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confinement (disruptions . can occur, causing major thermal and mechanical stresses to the
structure and walls. Nevertheless, it is considered the most promising design, and research is
continuing on various tokamaks around the world, the two largest being the Joint European
Torus (JET . in the UK and the tokomak fusion test reactor (TFTR . at Princeton in the USA.
Research is also being carried out on several types of stellarators. The biggest of
these, the Large Helical Device at Japan's National Institute of Fusion Research, began
operating in 1998. It is being used to study of the best magnetic configuration for plasma
confinement. At Garching in Germany, plasma is created and heated by electromagnetic
waves, and this work will be progressed in the W7-X stellerator, to be built at the new
German research center in Greifswald. Another stellarator, TJ-II, is under construction in
Madrid, Spain. Because stellarators have no toroidal current, there are no disruptions and
they can be operated continuously. The disadvantage is that, despite the stability, they do not
confine the plasma so well.
RFP devices differ from tokamaks mainly in the spatial distribution of the toroidal
magnetic field, which changes sign at the edge of the plasma. The RFX machine in Padua,
Italy is used to study the physical problems arising from the spontaneous reorganization of
the magnetic field, an intrinsic feature of this configuration.

4 . Inertial confinement Fusion (ICF)

In inertial confinement fusion (ICF) ., a newer line of research, laser or ion beams are
focused very precisely onto the surface of a targeta sphere of D-T ice, a few millimeters in
diameter. This evaporates or ionizes the outer layer of the material to form a plasma crown
that expands, generating an inward-moving compression front or implosion that heats up the
inner layers of material. The core or central hot spot of the fuel may be compressed to one
thousand times its liquid density, and ignition occurs when the core temperature reaches
about 100 million degrees Celsius. Thermonuclear combustion then spreads rapidly through
the compressed fuel, producing several times more energy than was originally used to
bombard the capsule. The time required for these reactions to occur is limited by the inertia
of the fuel (hence the name ., but is less than a microsecond. The aim is to produce repeated
microexplosions.

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Recent work at Osaka, Japan suggests that 'fast ignition' may be achieved at lower
temperature with a second very intense laser pulse through a millimeter-high gold cone
inside the compressed fuel, and timed to coincide with the peak compression. This technique
means that fuel compression is separated from hot spot generation with ignition, making the
process more practical.
So far, most inertial confinement work has involved lasers, although their low energy makes
it unlikely that they would be used in an actual fusion reactor. The world's most powerful
laser fusion facility is the NOVA at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in the US, and
declassified results show compressions to densities of up to 600 times that of the D-T liquid.
Various light and heavy ion accelerator systems are also being studied, with a view to
obtaining high particle densities.

5 . Plasma Heating
In an operating fusion reactor, part of the energy generated will serve to maintain the
plasma temperature as fresh deuterium and tritium are introduced. However, in the startup of
a reactor, either initially or after a temporary shutdown, the plasma will have to be heated to
100 million degrees Celsius. In current tokomak (and other . magnetic fusion experiments,
insufficient fusion energy is produced to maintain the plasma temperature. Consequently, the
devices operate in short pulses and the plasma must be heated afresh in every pulse.

Fig 5.1Glowing Plasma inside A Tokomak Fusion Test Reactor

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5.1 . Ohmic Heating

Since the plasma is an electrical conductor, it is possible to heat the plasma by
passing a current through it; in fact, the current that generates the poloidal field also heats the
plasma. This is called ohmic (or resistive . heating; it is the same kind of heating that occurs
in an electric light bulb or in an electric heater.

fig 5.2Plasma Heating

The heat generated depends on the resistance of the plasma and the current. But as the
temperature of heated plasma rises, the resistance decreases and the ohmic heating becomes
less effective. It appears that the maximum plasma temperature attainable by ohmic heating
in a tokomak is 20-30 million degrees Celsius. To obtain still higher temperatures, additional
heating methods must be used.

5.2 . Neutral-Beam Injection

Neutral-beam injection involves the introduction of high-energy (neutral . atoms into
the ohmically heated, magnetically confined plasma. The atoms are immediately ionized
and are trapped by the magnetic field. The high-energy ions then transfer part of their energy
to the plasma particles in repeated collisions, thus increasing the plasma temperature.

5.3 . Radio-frequency heating

Radio frequency heating is the heating of materials by radio frequency (otherwise
called electromagnetic . energy. This can be divided into 3 general categories as below. The
term "radio frequency" is misleading - electromagnetic energy of any frequency is absorbed
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(and reflected . to a greater or lesser degree by all materials. In radio-frequency heating, high-
frequency waves are generated by oscillators outside the torus. If the waves have a particular
frequency (or wavelength ., their energy can be transferred to the charged particles in the
plasma, which in turn collide with other plasma particles, thus increasing the temperature of
the bulk plasma .The frequency used for any particular purpose will depend on many things
and this is shown below.
In general, any material may accept electromagnetic energy but the degree to which that
happens is dependent on;
Frequency of the electromagnetic energy,
Intensity of the electromagnetic energy,
Proximity to the source of the electromagnetic energy,
Conducting or non-conducting material,
Nature of the material (i.e. how loss ..

5.3.1 . Induction Heating

Induction heating involves the heating of electrically conducting materials by
electromagnetic induction. Currents are induced in the material and these currents cause
heating. The frequency used may vary from as low as mains frequency (50/60 Hz . to more
than 10 MHz Heating also occurs by hysteresis loss if the material has significant relative
permeability (egg. Steel .. Induction heating is generally a non-contact process and usually
consists of a coil in close proximity to but not touching the material to be heated (usually a
metal ..

5.3.2 . Dielectric Heating

Dielectric heating involves the heating of electrically insulating materials by
dielectric loss. Voltage across the material causes energy to be dissipated as the molecules
attempt to line up with the continuously changing electric field. A common perception is that
the molecules rub together, with the friction causing heat. This is not so. Friction is a
macroscopic process and does not exist at the molecular level. The heat is generated solely
by the inability of the molecules to line up with the electric field. Frequencies in the range of
10-100 MHz are necessary to perform dielectric heating. Dielectric heating is generally a
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contact process and usually consists of the material to be heated (usually a non-metal .
sandwiched between metal plates forming a capacitor.

5.3.3 . Microwave Heating

Microwave heating is actually a sub-category of dielectric heating in that insulating
materials are heated primarily by dielectric loss. The difference is that of frequency. At
frequencies above 100 MHz an electromagnetic wave can be launched from a small
dimension emitter and conveyed through space. The material to be heated (a non-metal . can
therefore be simply placed in the path of the waves and heating takes place. It is a non-
contact process. Typical domestic microwave ovens operate at 2.45 GHz.

6 . Cold fusion
In 1989, spectacular claims were made for another approach, when two researchers,
in USA and UK, claimed to have achieved fusion in a simple tabletop apparatus working at
room temperature. Other experimenters failed to replicate this "cold fusion", however, and
most of the scientific community no longer considers it a real phenomenon. Nevertheless,
research continues. Cold fusion involves the electrolysis of heavy water using palladium
electrodes on which deuterium nuclei are said to concentrate at very high densities.

7 . Fusion history
Today, many countries take part in fusion research to some extent, led by the
European Union, the USA, Russia and Japan, with vigorous programs also under way in
China, Brazil, Canada, and Korea. Initially, fusion research in the USA and USSR was linked
to atomic weapons development, and it remained classified until the 1958 Atoms for Peace
conference in Geneva. Following a breakthrough with the Soviet tokomak design, fusion
research became big science in the 1970s. But the cost and complexity of the devices
involved increased to the point where international co-operation was the only way forward.
In 1978, the European Community (with Sweden and Switzerland . launched the JET project
in the UK. JET produced its first plasma in 1983, and saw successful experiments using a D-
T fuel mix in 1991. In the USA, the PLT tokomak at Princeton produced a plasma

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temperature of more than 60 million degrees in 1978 and D-T experiments began on the
Tokomak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR . there in 1993. In Japan, experiments have been
carried out since 1988 on the JT-60 Tokomak.

8 . Fusion power plants

Fig 8.2Fusion power plants

In the most likely scenario for a fusion power plant, a deuterium-tritium (D-T .
mixture is admitted to the evacuated reactor chamber and there ionized and heated to
thermonuclear temperatures. The fuel is held away from the chamber walls by magnetic
forces long enough for a useful number of reactions to take place. The charged helium nuclei
which are formed give up energy of motion by colliding with newly injected cold fuel atoms
which are then ionized and heated, thus sustaining the fusion reaction. The neutrons, having
no charge, move in straight lines through the thin walls of the vacuum chamber with little
loss of energy.
The neutrons and their 14 MeV of energy are absorbed in a "blanket" containing
lithium which surrounds the fusion chamber. The neutrons' energy of motion is given up
through many collisions with lithium nuclei, thus creating heat that is removed by a heat
exchanger which conveys it to a conventional steam electric plant. The neutrons themselves
ultimately enter into nuclear reactions with lithium to generate tritium which is separated and
fed back into the reactor as a fuel.
The successful operation of a fusion power plant will require the use of materials resistant to
energetic neutron bombardment, thermal stress, and magnetic forces. Additional work also
needs to be done on the design of systems for the removal of spent gas.

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9 . Joint European Torus (JET) .

The Joint European Torus (JET . is the largest tokomak operating in the world today.
Up to 16 MW of fusion power for one second has been achieved in D-T plasmas using the
device and many experiments are conducted to study different heating schemes and other
techniques. JET has been very successful in operating remote handling techniques in a
radioactive environment to modify the interior of the device, and has shown that the remote
handling maintenance of fusion devices is realistic.
JET, the Joint European Torus, is the largest nuclear fusion experimental reactor yet
built. The reactor is situated on an old Navy airfield near Culham, Oxfordshire, in the UK:
the construction of the buildings which house the project was undertaken by Tarmac
Construction,[1] starting in 1978 with the Torus Hall being completed in January 1982.
Construction of the experiment itself began immediately after the completion of the Torus
Hall, with the first experiments beginning in 1983.
The components for the JET experiment came from manufacturers all over Europe,
with these components transported to the site. Because of the extremely high power
requirements for the tokomak, and the fact that power draw from the main grid is limited,
two large flywheel generators were constructed to provide this necessary power. One
generator provides power for the 32 toroidal field coils, the other for inner poloidal field
coils. The outer field coils draw their power from the grid.
Equipment capability
JET is equipped with remote handling facilities to cope with the radioactivity
produced by Deuterium-Tritium (D-T . fuel, which is the fuel proposed for the first
generation of fusion power plants. Pending construction of ITER, JET remains the only large
fusion reactor with facilities dedicated to handling the radioactivity released from D-T
fusion. The power production record breaking runs from JET and TFTR used 50-50 D-T fuel
mixes.
During a full D-T experimental campaign in 1997 JET achieved a world record peak
fusion power of 16 MW which equates to a measured Q of approximately 0.7. Q is the ratio
of fusion alpha heating power to input heating power. In order to achieve burning plasma, a
Q value greater than 1 is required. This figure does not include other power requirements for
operation, most notably confinement. A commercial fusion reactor would probably need a Q
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value somewhere between 15 and 22. As of 1998, a higher Q of 1.25 is claimed for the JT-60
tokomak; however, this was not achieved under real D-T conditions but estimated from
experiments performed with a pure Deuterium (D-D . plasma. Similar extrapolations have
not been made for JET, but it is likely that increases in Q over the 1997 measurements could
now be achieved if permission to run another full D-T campaign was granted. Work has now
begun on ITER to further develop fusion power.

9.1 . Machine information

The inside of the thermo-nuclear fusion research reactor at JET is an environment
hostile to human beings. In order to maintain and repair the reactor, as well as reconfigure it
with new components before any new series of fusion experiments, a bespoke Remote
Handling system was developed at JET.
The design and operation of the Remote Handling system requires a myriad of different
technologies, all of which are also applicable to ITER, the next generation fusion research
project.
1 . Weight of the vacuum vessel: 100 tonnes
2 . Weight of the toroidal field coils: 384 tonnes
3 . Weight of the Iron Core: 2700 tonnes
4 . Wall material: Primarily carbon fiber composite, Beryllium coated.
5 . Plasma major radius: 2.96 m
6 . Plasma minor radius: 2.10 m (vertical ., 1.25 m (horizontal .
7 . Flat top pulse length: 20 s
8 . Toroidal magnetic field (on plasma axis .: 3.45 T
9 . Plasma current: 3.2 MA (circular plasma ., 4.8 MA (D-shape plasma .
10 . Lifetime of the plasma: 2060 s
11 . Auxiliary heating:
12 . Neutral beam injection heating 23 MW
12 . Radio frequency heating 15 MW
Major diagnostics:
1 . Visible/infrared video cameras
2 . Numerous magnetic coils provide magnetic field, current and energy measurements
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3 . Thomson scattering spectroscopy provides electron temperature and electron density
profiles of the plasma
4 . Charge exchange spectroscopy provides impurity ion temperature, density and rotation
profiles
5 . Interferometers measure line integrated plasma density
6 . Electron cyclotron emission antennas fast, high resolution electron temperature profiles
7 . Visible/UV/X-ray spectrometers temperatures and densities
8 . Neutron spectroscopy Number of neutrons leaving the plasma relates directly to the
fusion power.
9 . Neutron energy relates to the ion velocity distribution and hence the fuel reactivity.
10 . Bolometers energy loss from the plasma
11 . Various material probes inserted into the plasma to take direct measurements of flow
rates and temperatures
12 . Soft X-ray cameras to examine MHD properties of plasmas
13 . Time resolved neutron yield monitor
14 . Hard X-ray monitors
15 . Electron Cyclotron Emission Spatial Scanners

Fig 9.1Inside View Of Tokomak

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9.2 . Current status

JET was originally set up by EURATOM with a discriminatory employment system
that allowed non-British staff to be employed with more than twice the salaries of their
British equivalents. The British staff eventually had this practice declared illegal, and
substantial damages were paid at the end of 1999 to UKAEA staff, and later to contractors.
This was the immediate cause of the ending of EURATOMs operation of the facility.
In December 1999 JET's international contract ended and the United Kingdom
Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA . then took over managing the safety and operation of the
JET facilities on behalf of its European partners. From that time (2000 ., JET's experimental
programme was then co-ordinated by the European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA .
Close Support Unit.
JET operated throughout 2003 culminating in experiments using small amounts of
tritium. For most of 2004 it was shut down for a series of major upgrades increasing total
available heating power to over 40 MW, enabling further studies relevant to the development
of ITER to be undertaken. In the future it is possible that JET-EP (Enhanced Performance .
will further increase the record for fusion power.
In late September 2006, experimental campaign C16 was started. Its objective is to study
ITER-like operation scenarios.

9.3 . Remote handling

9.3.1 . Why do Remote Handling at JET?
JET is the worlds largest experiment on thermo-nuclear fusion, the energy producing
process which takes place in the sun.Over time, high-energy neutrons render all components
and support structures of the reactor radioactive. Furthermore many plasma facing tiles are
covered in Beryllium, which, if breathed in as dust, poses a further hazard to anyone working
inside the reactor. Therefore, JET always placed great emphasis on its Remote Handling
group, to ensure a maximum of tasks can be carried out fully remotely.
The JET machine is a complex device whose detailed configuration changes as the
physics experimental requirements dictate. The Remote Handling system is required to fulfill
two functions:

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Repair of any system whose failure stops the experiment. Modification of Torus components
for new experiments Experience shows that remote handling interventions achieve higher
precision and introduce less impurities than sending men inside the torus did in the past.
The basic remote maintenance work is undertaken by a dexterous, force-reflecting
master-slave servo-manipulator(called the Mascot ..The Mascot Slave unit is transported on
the end of a 10 metre long articulated robot. The Mascot master station is driven by
experienced operators situated in the Remote Handling Control Room.
To gain access to the inside of the torus, two of the eight main horizontal ports are
reserved for Remote Handling. A second articulated Boom works in parallel with the first to
transfer components and tools between storage facilities outside the torus and the workplace
within the torus. Both Booms are hyper-redundant multi-joint devices to allow them to
snake their way through the narrow ports and around the torus.Other robots are designed
for Ex-Vessel work, like the Telescopic Articulated Remote Mast (TARM ., which is
suspended from the main 150 ton gantry crane.

9.3.2 . Remote Handling shutdown Life Cycle

Fig 9.2Remote Handling System

The JET experimental reactor undergoes a planned refurbishment period (called a

shutdown . typically every 1 to 3 years. During this time plasma experiments are suspended,
the torus is vented (i.e. the vacuum is ended . and brought to normal atmospheric pressure
just above room temperature. This is the time when the Remote Handling equipment enters
the torus to do planned refurbishment work.

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However, the work to prepare a Remote Handling shutdown starts several years before then.
First the plasma physicists think up a new series of fusion experiments and begin to design
the new components required. Already at this stage the Remote Handling engineers are
involved, to ensure that the design of all new components is compatible with Remote
Handling tooling.
Then the Remote Handling design engineers at JET start to design tools and (if needed .
robotic equipment such as dedicated end-effectors, to assist in the installation of the new
torus components.
At the same time Remote Handling operation engineers work out strategies of how to best
achieve certain installation tasks and develop the task logistics, procedures and teach-files.
The new work procedures are derived at in a Virtual Reality simulation, and later tested and
fine-tuned in a physical full-scale mockup facility, using the real robotic equipment and the
real Remote Handling tools, but mostly using dummy components.

10 . How to start a fire?

Nowadays we dont use controlled fire directly in our houses, but we still take
advantage of it: Fossil fuels are burned in power plants to produce the energy we need in our
daily life. The predictions how long the reserves of fossil fuels will last differ, depending on
who analyses the resources. One thing is certain: someday fossil fuels will be exhausted.
Therefore scientists and decision makers are looking for new energy resources. One of them
could be the use of the fusion process that has been happening in the Sun for 4.5 billion years
with temperatures of 15 million degrees. To use this energy source on Earth physicists and
engineers aim to reach temperatures ten times higher than in the Sun. JET as a European
fusion experiment can achieve these extreme conditions under which the process is
investigated in detail to use it in future power plants.

10.1 . Firstly: Produce plasma

To investigate the plasma state and later to harness energy with the man-made
technology, the plasma has to have a temperature of hundreds of millions of degrees Celsius.
Plasma is composed of nuclei and electrons moving independently from each other. JET is
capable of producing a completely ionized gas. Obtaining these extraordinary high
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temperatures requires extraordinarily powerful heating. This is done by Neutral Beam
Injection Heating (NBI . and Radio Frequency Heating (RF .. The total input power to these
systems can be up to 250 megawatts. The installed output power is 55 megawatts of the radio
frequency power. Powerful heating is also needed to sustain this temperature, otherwise the
plasma would rapidly cool down due to inevitable heat losses via radiation and heat
convection or conduction.

Fig 10.1 Plasma and its heating

10.2 .secondly: feed the coil

Plasma heating is not the biggest consumer of energy at JET. At the hundreds of
million degrees Celsius needed, standard thermal insulation methods are totally inadequate.
The reason tungsten is the material with the highest known melting point of 3,422 degree
Celsius, which isnt at all sufficient to resist the high temperature of the plasma. So to
confine the plasma JET uses a magnetic confinement system to keep the charged particles of
the plasma away from the vessel wall and to protect it from the hot plasma. Unless the
plasma is well insulated in the magnetic field, it can lose energy due to a temperature
gradient from the vessel wall to the plasma center of about one million degrees per
centimeter. The well-defined magnetic coils producing the strong magnetic fields need a
significant amount of power. Under the circumstances high currents normally required,
electrical resistance of the coils causes significant losses of energy in form of heat. As a
consequence they need to be water-cooled. The energy to do so is mostly dissipated to the
atmosphere via special cooling towers. Some fusion experiments, like Tore Supra in France,
LHD in Japan, EAST in China, KSTAR in South Korea, Wendelstein 7-X (under

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construction . in Germany, or the future experiment ITER use superconducting coils that
avoid energy losses at the expense of running them at very low temperatures, around -270
degree Celsius, using liquid helium. These experiments will run with higher energy
efficiency by using superconducting coils.

Fig 10.2 JET's coils and plasma

10.3 . Thirdly: Produce pulses

Every individual experiment at JET lasts several tens of seconds. During experimental
campaigns there are some 30 experiments daily, which physicists call a pulse. Most of the
JET power consumption is concentrated in short bursts, which is quite demanding on the
electricity grid and on electrical engineering in general. Moreover, even during a single
pulse, the power requirements are not constant the start-up needs more power than the
plateau, the sustaining phase. On one hand, the toroidal field coils are the largest single
load on JET. On the other hand, the poloidal field system has complex switching and control
requirements. The plasma is always in the move and after it has been created, its position and
shape is feedback-controlled. The magnetic field is continuously measured, and additional
power is supplied to the vertical and horizontal polemical field amplifiers according to
plasma behavior.
Running a JET pulse requires around 500 megawatts of power, of which more than a
half is fed to the toroidal field coils. Around 100 megawatts of power is needed to run the
poloidal field system. The rest of nearly 150 megawatts runs the additional heating sources.
The energy conversion efficiencies of all heating systems limit the power the plasma
receives. However, in most JET pulses only part of these installed capacities is exploited,
depending on experimental scenarios. Last but not least, the plasma also gets a few
megawatts of power from ohmic heating. Ohmic heating means electric current induced in
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the plasma by the inner poloidal coils. In total, JET plasmas usually consume a few tens of
megawatts and accumulate only a fraction of the consumed energy. The difference between
input and output disappear via radiation, heat conduction and particle losses.
When the fire is lit in this way the real work has just begun: physicists explore the
conditions under which the plasma will be able to produce energy in a future fusion power
plant.

fig10.3JET's power loads

11 . International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) .

ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor . is an international
tokomak (magnetic confinement fusion . research/engineering proposal for an experimental
project that will help to make the transition from today's studies of plasma physics to future
electricity-producing fusion power plants. It will build on research done with devices such as
DIII-D, EAST, KSTAR, TFTR, ASDEX Upgrade, Joint European Torus, JT-60, Tore Supra
and T-15, and will be considerably larger than any of them.
ITER is designed to produce approximately 500 MW (500,000,000 watts . of fusion
power sustained for up to 1000 seconds (compared to JET's peak of 16 MW for less than a
second . by the fusion of about 0.5 g of deuterium/tritium mixture in its approximately 840
m3 reactor chamber. Although ITER is expected to produce (in the form of heat . 5-10 times
more energy than the amount consumed to heat up the plasma to fusion temperatures, the
generated heat will not be used to generate any electricity.
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According to the ITER consortium, fusion power offers the potential of
"environmentally benign, widely applicable and essentially inexhaustible" electricity,
properties that they believe will be needed as world energy demands increase while
simultaneously greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced, justifying the expensive research
project.
ITER was originally an acronym for International Thermonuclear Experimental
Reactor, but that title was dropped due to the negative popular connotation of
"thermonuclear," especially when in conjunction with "experimental". "ITER" also means
"journey", "direction" or "way" in Latin and this double meaning reflects ITER's role in
harnessing nuclear fusion as a peaceful power source.

11.1 . Objectives
The official objective of ITER is to "demonstrate the scientific and technological
feasibility of fusion energy for peaceful purposes". ITER has a number of specific objectives,
all concerned with developing a viable fusion power reactor:
i. To momentarily produce ten times more thermal energy from fusion heating than is
supplied by auxiliary heating (a Q value of 10 ..
ii. To produce steady-state plasma with a Q value greater than 5.
iii. To maintain a fusion pulse for up to eight minutes.
iv. To ignite a 'burning' (self-sustaining . plasma.
v. To develop technologies and processes needed for a fusion power plant including
superconducting magnets and remote handling (maintenance by robot ..
vi. To verify tritium breeding concepts.
vii. To refine neutron shield/heat conversion technology (most of energy in the D+T
fusion reaction is released in the form of fast neutrons ..

11.2 . Reactor overview

When deuterium and tritium fuse, two nuclei come together to form a helium nucleus
(an alpha particle ., and a high-energy neutron.

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While in fact nearly all stable isotopes lighter on the periodic table than iron will fuse
with some other isotope and release energy, deuterium and tritium are by far the most
attractive for energy generation as they require the lowest activation energy (thus lowest
temperature . to do so.
All proto- and mid-life stars radiate enormous amounts of energy generated by fusion
processes. Mass for mass, the deuterium-tritium fusion process releases roughly three times
as much energy as uranium 235 fission and millions of times more energy than a chemical
reaction such as the burning of coal. It is the goal of a fusion power plant to harness this
energy to produce electricity.
The activation energy for fusion is so high because the protons in each nucleus will
tend to strongly repel one another, as they each have the same positive charge. A heuristic for
estimating reaction rates is that nuclei must be able to get within 100 fathometer (1 1013
meter . of each other, where the nuclei are increasingly likely to undergo quantum tunneling
past the electrostatic barrier and the turning point where the strong nuclear force and the
electrostatic force are equally balanced, allowing them to fuse. In ITER, this distance of
approach is made possible by high temperatures and magnetic confinement. High
temperatures give the nuclei enough energy to overcome their electrostatic repulsion. For
deuterium and tritium, the optimal reaction rates occur at temperatures on the order of
100,000,000 K. The plasma is heated to a high temperature by ohmic heating (running a
current through the plasma .. Additional heating is applied using neutral beam injection
(which cross magnetic field lines without a net deflection and will not cause a large
electromagnetic disruption . and radio frequency (RF . or microwave heating.
At such high temperatures, particles have a vast kinetic energy, and hence velocity. If
unconfined, the particles will rapidly escape, taking the energy with them, cooling the plasma
to the point where net energy is no longer produced. A successful reactor would need to
contain the particles in a small enough volume for a long enough time for much of the
plasma to fuse. In ITER and many other magnetic confinement reactors, the plasma, a gas of
charged particles, is confined using magnetic fields. A charged particle moving through a
magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular to the direction of travel, resulting in
centripetal acceleration, thereby confining it to move in a circle.

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A solid confinement vessel is also needed, both to shield the magnets and other
equipment from high temperatures and energetic photons and particles, and to maintain a
near-vacuum for the plasma to populate. The containment vessel is subjected to a barrage of
very energetic particles, where electrons, ions, photons, alpha particles, and neutrons
constantly bombard it and degrade the structure. The material must be designed to endure
this environment so that a power plant would be economical. Tests of such materials will be
carried out both at ITER and at IFMIF (International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility ..
Once fusion has begun, high energy neutrons will radiate from the reactive regions of
the plasma, crossing magnetic field lines easily due to charge neutrality. Since it is the
neutrons that receive the majority of the energy, they will be ITER's primary source of
energy output. Ideally, alpha particles will expend their energy in the plasma, further heating
it.
Beyond the inner wall of the containment vessel one of several test blanket modules
will be placed. These are designed to slow and absorb neutrons in a reliable and efficient
manner, limiting damage to the rest of the structure, and breeding tritium from lithium and
the incoming neutrons for fuel. Energy absorbed from the fast neutrons is extracted and
passed into the primary coolant. This heat energy would then be used to power an electricity-
generating turbine in a real power plant; however, in ITER this heat is not of scientific
interest, and will be extracted and disposed.

11.3 . Technical design

Selected facts: The central solenoid coil will use superconducting niobium-tin, to
carry 46 kA and produce a field of 13.5 tussles. The 18 toroidal field coils will also use
niobium-tin. At maximum field of 11.8 T they will store 41 GJ (total? .. They have been
tested at a record 80 kA. Other lower field ITER magnets (PF and CC . will use niobium-
titanium.

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Fig 11.1Cross-sectional view of ITER

11.4 . Assessment of the vacuum vessel

ITER has decided to ask AIB-Vinotte International (an inspection organisation
located in Belgium and accredited by the French Nuclear Authorities ASN . to assess the
confinement (vacuum . vessel, heart of the project, following the French Nuclear Regulatory
requirements.
The Vacuum Vessel is the central part of the ITER machine: a double walled steel container
in which the plasma is contained by means of magnetic fields.
The ITER Vacuum Vessel will be the biggest fusion furnace ever built. It will be
twice as large and 16 times as heavy as any previously manufactured fusion vessel: each of
the nine torus shaped sectors will weigh about 450 tons. When all the shielding and port
structures are included, this adds up to a total of 5,116 tons. Its external diameter will
measure 19.4 m, the internal 6.5 m. Once assembled, the whole structure will be 11.3 m high.
The primary function of the Vacuum Vessel is to provide a hermetically sealed
plasma container. Its main components are the main vessel, the port structures and the
supporting system. The main vessel is a double walled structure with poloidal and toroidal
stiffening ribs between 60 mm thick shells to reinforce the vessel structure. These ribs also
form the flow passages for the cooling water. The space between the double walls will be
filled with shield structures made of austenitic stainless steel which is corrosion resistant and
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does not conduct heat well. The inner surfaces of the vessel will be covered with blanket
modules. These modules will provide shielding from the high-energy neutrons produced by
the fusion reactions and some will also be used for tritium breeding concepts.
The Vacuum Vessel has 18 upper, 17 equatorial and 9 lower ports that will be used for
remote handling operations, diagnostic systems, neutral beam injections and vacuum
pumping.

12 . HIPER
The High Power laser Energy Research facility (HiPER . is an experimental laser-
driven inertial confinement fusion (ICF . device undergoing preliminary design for possible
construction in the European Union starting around 2010. HiPER is the first experiment
designed specifically to study the "fast ignition" approach to generating nuclear fusion,
which uses much smaller lasers than conventional designs, yet produces fusion power
outputs of about the same magnitude. This offers a total "fusion gain" that is much higher
than devices like the National Ignition Facility (NIF ., and a reduction in construction costs
of about ten times

12.1 . Background
Inertial confinement fusion (ICF . devices use "drivers" to rapidly heat the outer
layers of a "target" in order to compress it. The target is a small spherical pellet containing a
few milligrams of fusion fuel, typically a mix of deuterium and tritium. The heat of the laser
burns the surface of the pellet into plasma, which explodes off the surface. The remaining
portion of the target is driven inwards due to Newton's Third Law, eventually collapsing into
a small point of very high density. The rapid blow off also creates a shock wave that travels
towards the center of the compressed fuel. When it reaches the center of the fuel and meets
the shock from the other side of the target, the energy in the shock wave further heats and
compresses the tiny volume around it. If the temperature and density of that small spot can be
raised high enough, fusion reactions will occur.
The fusion reactions release high-energy particles, some of which (primarily alpha
particles . collide with the high density fuel around it and slow down. This heats the fuel

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further, and can potentially cause that fuel to undergo fusion as well. Given the right overall
conditions of the compressed fuelhigh enough density and temperaturethis heating
process can result in a chain reaction, burning outward from the center where the shock wave
started the reaction. This is a condition known as "ignition", which can lead to a significant
portion of the fuel in the target undergoing fusion, and the release of significant amounts of
energy.
To date most ICF experiments have used lasers to heat the targets. Calculations show
that the energy must be delivered quickly in order to compress the core before it
disassembles, as well as creating a suitable shock wave. The energy must also be focused
extremely evenly across the target's outer surface in order to collapse the fuel into a
symmetric core. Although other "drivers" have been suggested, notably heavy ions driven in
particle accelerators, lasers are currently the only devices with the right combination of
features.

12.2 . Description
In the case of HiPER, the driver laser system is similar to existing systems like NIF,
but considerably smaller and less powerful. The driver consists of a number of "beamlines"
containing Nd:glass laser amplifiers at one end of the building. Just prior to firing, the glass
is "pumped" to a high-energy state with a series of xenon flash tubes, causing a population
inversion of the neodymium (Nd . atoms in the glass. This readies them for amplification via
stimulated emission when a small amount of laser light, generated externally in a fibre optic,
is fed into the beamlines. The glass is not particularly effective at transferring power into the
beam, so in order to get as much power as possible back out the beam is reflected through the
glass four times in a mirrored cavity, each time gaining more power. When this process is
complete, a Pockels cell "switches" the light out of the cavity. One problem for the HiPER
project is that Nd: glass is no longer being produced commercially, so a number of options
need to be studied to ensure supply of the estimated 1,300 disks

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Fig 12.1 Plan Of HIPER

From there, the laser light is fed into a very long spatial filter to clean up the resulting pulse.
The filter is essentially a telescope that focuses the beam into a spot some distance away,
where a small pinhole located at the focal point cuts off any "stray" light caused by
inhomogeneities in the laser beam. The beam then widens out until a second lens returns it to
a straight beam again. It is the use of spatial filters that lead to the long beamlines seen in ICF
laser devices. In the case of HiPER, the filters take up about 50% of the overall length. The
beam width at exit of the driver system is about 40 cm 40 cm.
One of the problems encountered in previous experiments, notably the Shiva laser, was that
the infrared light provided by the Nd: glass lasers (at ~1054 nm in vaco . couples strongly
with the electrons around the target, losing a considerable amount of energy that would
otherwise heat the target itself. This is typically addressed through the use of an optical
frequency multiplier, which can double or triple the frequency of the light, into the green or
ultraviolet, respectively. These higher frequencies interact less strongly with the electrons,
putting more power into the target. HiPER will use frequency tripling on the drivers.
When the amplification process is complete the laser light enters the experimental
chamber, lying at one end of the building. Here it is reflected off of a series of deformable
mirrors that help correct remaining imperfections in the wavefront, and then feeds them into
the target chamber from all angles. Since the overall distances from the ends of the beamlines
to different points on the target chamber are different, delays are introduced on the individual
paths to ensure they all reach the center of the chamber at the same time, within about 10 ps.

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The target, a fusion fuel pellet about 1 mm in diameter in the case of HiPER, lies at the
center of the chamber.
HiPER differs from most ICF devices in that it also includes a second set of lasers for
directly heating the compressed fuel. The heating pulse needs to be very short, about 10 to
20 ps long, but this is too short a time for the amplifiers to work well. To solve this problem
HiPER uses a technique known as chirped pulse amplification (CPA .. CPA starts with a
short pulse from a wide-bandwidth (multi-frequency . laser source, as opposed to the driver
which uses a monochromatic (single-frequency . source. Light from this initial pulse is split
into different colors using a pair of diffraction gratings and optical delays. This "stretches"
the pulse into a chain several nanoseconds long. The pulse is then sent into the amplifiers as
normal. When it exits the beamlines it is recombined in a similar set of gratings to produce a
single very short pulse. But because the pulse now has very high power, the gratings have to
be large (approx 1 m . and sit in a vacuum. Additionally the individual beams must be lower
in power overall; the compression side of the system uses 40 beamlines of about 5 kJ each to
generate a total of 200 kJ, whereas the ignition side requires 24 beamlines of just under 3 kJ
to generate a total of 70 kJ. The precise number and power of the beamlines is currently a
subject of research. Frequency multiplication will also be used on the heaters, but it has not
yet been decided whether to use doubling or tripling; the latter puts more power into the
target, but is less efficient converting the light. As of 2007, the baseline design is based on
doubling into the green.

12.3 . Fast Ignition and HiPER

In traditional ICF devices the driver laser is used to compress the target to very high
densities. The shock wave created by this process further heats the compressed fuel when it
collides in the center of the sphere. If the compression is symmetrical enough the increase in
temperature can create conditions close to the Lawson crITERion, leading to significant
fusion energy production. If the resulting fusion rate is high enough, the energy released in
these reactions will heat the surrounding fuel to similar temperatures, causing them to
undergo fusion as well. In this case, known as "ignition", a significant portion of the fuel will
undergo fusion and release large amounts of energy. Ignition is the basic goal of any fusion
device.
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The amount of laser energy needed to effectively compress the targets to ignition
conditions has grown rapidly from early estimates. In the "early days" of ICF research in the
1970s it was believed that as little as 1 kilojoules (kJ . would suffice, and a number of
experimental lasers were built in order to reach these power levels. When they did, a series of
problems, typically related to the homogeneity of the collapse, turned out to seriously disrupt
the implosion symmetry and lead to much cooler core temperatures that originally expected.
Through the 1980s the estimated energy required to reach ignition grew into the mega joule
range, which appeared to make ICF impractical for fusion energy production. For instance,
the National Ignition Facility (NIF . uses about 330 MJ of electrical power to pump the driver
lasers, and in the best case is expected to produce about 20 MJ of fusion power output.
Without dramatic gains in output, such a device would never be a practical energy source.
The fast ignition approach attempts to avoid these problems. Instead of using the
shock wave to create the conditions needed for fusion above the ignition range, this approach
directly heats the fuel. This is far more efficient than the shock wave, which becomes less
important. In HiPER, the compression provided by the driver is "good", but not nearly that
created by larger devices like NIF; HiPER's driver is about 200 kJ and produces densities of
about 300 g/cm. That's about one-third that of NIF, and about the same as generated by the
earlier NOVA laser of the 1980s. For comparison, lead is about 11 g/cm, so this still
represents a considerable amount of compression, notably when one considers the target's
interior contained light D-T fuel around 0.1 g/cm.
Ignition is started by a very-short (~10 picoseconds . ultra-high-power (~70 kJ, 4 PW
. laser pulse, aimed through a hole in the plasma at the core. The light from this pulse
interacts with the fuel, generating a shower of high-energy (3.5 MeV . relativistic electrons
that are driven into the fuel. The electrons heat a spot on one side of the dense core, and if
this heating is localized enough it is expected to drive the area well beyond ignition energies.
The overall efficiency of this approach is many times that of the conventional
approach. In the case of NIF the laser generates about 4 MJ of infrared power to create
ignition that releases about 20 MJ of energy. This corresponds to a "fusion gain" the ratio
of input laser power to output fusion power of about 5. If one uses the baseline
assumptions for the current HiPER design, the two lasers (driver and heater . produce about
270 kJ in total, yet generate 25 to 30 MJ, a gain of about 100. Considering a variety of losses,
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the actual gain is predicted to be around 72. Not only does this outperform NIF by a wide
margin, the smaller lasers are much less expensive to build as well. In terms of power-for-
cost, HiPER is expected to be about an order of magnitude less expensive than conventional
devices like NIF.
Compression is already a fairly well-understood problem, and HiPER is primarily interested
in exploring the precise physics of the rapid heating process. It is not clear how quickly the
electrons stop in the fuel load; while this is known for matter under normal pressures, it's not
for the ultra-dense conditions of the compressed fuel. To work efficiently, the electrons
should stop in as short a distance as possible, in order to release their energy into a small spot
and thus raise the temperature (energy per unit volume . as high as possible.
How to get the laser light onto that spot is also a matter for further research. One
approach uses a short pulse from another laser to heat the plasma outside the dense "core",
essentially burning a hole through it and exposing the dense fuel inside. This approach will
be tested on the OMEGA-EP system in the US. Another approach, tested successfully on the
GEKKO XII laser in Japan, uses a small gold cone that cuts through a small area of the target
shell; on heating no plasma is created in this area, leaving a hole that can be aimed into by
shining the laser into the inner surface of the cone. HiPER is currently planning on using the
gold cone approach, but will likely study the burning solution as well.

12.4 . Current Status

In 2005 HiPER completed a preliminary study outlining possible approaches and
arguments for its construction. The report received positive reviews from the EC in July
2007, and moved onto a preparatory design phase in early 2008 with detailed designs for
construction beginning in 2011 or 2012.
In parallel, the HiPER project also proposes to build smaller laser systems with higher
repetition rates. The high powered flash lamps used to pump the laser amplifier glass causes
it to deform, and it cannot be fired again until it cools off, which takes as long as a day.
Additionally only a very small amount of the flash of white light generated by the tubes is of
the right frequency to be absorbed by the Nd:glass and thus lead to amplification, in general
only about 1 to 1.5% of the energy fed into the tubes ends up in the laser beam.

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Key to avoiding these problems is replacing the flash lamps with more efficient
pumps, typically based on laser diodes. These are far more efficient at generating light from
electricity, and thus run much cooler. More importantly, the light they do generate is fairly
monochromatic and can be tuned to frequencies that can be easily absorbed. This means that
much less power needs to be used to produce any particular amount of laser light, further
reducing the overall amount of heat being generated. The improvement in efficiency can be
dramatic; existing experimental devices operate at about 10% overall efficiency, and it is
believed "near term" devices will improve this as high as 20%.
HiPER proposes to build a demonstrator diode-pump system producing 10 kJ at 1 Hz
or 1 kJ at 10 Hz depending on a design choice yet to be made. The best high-repetition lasers
currently operating are much smaller; MERCURY at Livermore is about 70 J, HALNA in
Japan at ~20 J, and LUCIA in France at ~100 J. HiPER's demonstrator would thus be
between 10 and 1000 times as powerful as any of these.
In order to make a practical commercial power generator, the high-gain of a device
like HiPER would have to be combined with a high-repetition rate laser and a target chamber
capable of extracting the power. Additional areas of research for post-HiPER devices include
practical methods to carry the heat out of the target chamber for power production, protecting
the device from the neutron flux generated by the fusion reactions, and the production of
tritium from

12.5 . Assessing fusion power

Fusion power plants has the potential to substantially reduce the environmental
impacts of increasing world electricity demands since, like nuclear fission power, they would
make negligible contributions acid rain or the greenhouse effect compared to fossil fuels.
Fusion power could easily satisfy the energy needs associated with continued economic
growth, given the ready availability of fuels. There would be no danger of a runaway fusion
reaction as this is intrinsically impossible and any malfunction would result in a rapid
shutdown of the plant.
However, although fusion generates no radioactive fission products or transuranic
elements, and the unburned gases can be treated on site, there would a short-term radioactive
waste problem due to activation products. Some component materials will become
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radioactive during the lifetime of a nuclear reactor, due to bombardment with high-energy
neutrons, and will eventually become radioactive waste. The volume of such waste would be
similar to that due to activation products from a fission reactor. The radio toxicity of these
wastes would be relatively short-lived compared with the actinides (long-lived alpha-emitting
transuranic isotopes . from a fission reactor.
There are also other concerns, such as those first raised in 1973 by the American
Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS .. These include the hazard arising from
an accident to the magnetic system. The total energy stored in the magnetic field would be
similar to that of an average lightning bolt (100 billion joules, equivalent to about 45 tonnes
of TNT .. Attention was also drawn to the possibility of a lithium fire. In contact with air or
water, lithium burns spontaneously and could release many times that amount of energy.
Safety of nuclear fusion is a major issue.
But the AAAS was most concerned about the release of tritium into the environment.
It is radioactive and very difficult to contain since it can penetrate concrete, rubber and some
grades of steel. As an isotope of hydrogen it is easily incorporated into water, making the
water itself weakly radioactive. With a half-life of 12.4 years, tritium remains a threat to
health for over one hundred years after it is created, as a gas or in water. It can be inhaled,
absorbed through the skin or ingested. Inhaled tritium spreads throughout the soft tissues and
triturated water mixes quickly with all the water in the body. The AAAS estimated that each
fusion reactor could release up to 2x1012 Becquerel of tritium a day during operation
through routine leaks, assuming the best containment systemsmuch more in a year than the
Three Mile Island accident released altogether. Moreover, an accident would release even
more. This is one reason why long-term hopes are for the deuterium-deuterium fusion
process, dispensing with tritium.
Materials research and development will play a major role in determining fusion's
future viability due to the very high energetic neutron bombardment, thermal stress, and
magnetic forces.
At this point in time the economics of fusion power are largely unknown. The capital costs
are likely to be large, given that a fusion power plant would be much larger in physical size
and more complex than a conventional fission power plant. The level zed cost of electricity

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from current fission reactors is greater than that from fossil fuels and wind, so fusion must
make significant progress on this front to compete in future electricity markets.
Thus, while the scientific community has made enormous progress in our scientific
understanding of fusion, as of yet there is no clearly identified route to an attractive
commercial fusion power plant that will sell in the energy marketplace of the 21st century
and beyond. While fusion power clearly has much to offer if and when the technology is
eventually developed, the problems associated with it also need to be addressed if is to
become a widely used future energy source.

13 . Fusion advantages
Fusion power would provide much more energy for a given weight of fuel than any
technology currently in use, and the fuel itself (primarily deuterium . exists abundantly in the
Earth's ocean: about 1 in 6500 hydrogen atoms in seawater is deuterium. Although this may
seem a low proportion (about 0.015% ., because nuclear fusion reactions are so much more
energetic than chemical combustion and seawater is easier to access and more plentiful than
fossil fuels, some experts estimate that fusion could supply the world's energy needs for
millions of years.
An important aspect of fusion energy in contrast to many other energy sources is that
the cost of production is inelastic. The cost of wind energy, for example, goes up as the
optimal locations are developed first, while further generators must be sited in less ideal
conditions. With fusion energy, the production cost will not increase much, even if large
numbers of plants are built. It has been suggested that even 100 times the current energy
consumption of the world is possible.
Some problems which are expected to be an issue in this century such as fresh water
shortages can actually be regarded merely as problems of energy supply. For example
in desalination plants, seawater can be purified through distillation or reverse
osmosis. However, these processes are energy intensive. Even if the first fusion plants are not
competitive with alternative sources, fusion could still become competitive if large scale
desalination requires more power than the alternatives are able to provide.
Despite being technically non-renewable, fusion power has many of the benefits of
long-term renewable energy sources (such as being a sustainable energy supply compared to
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presently-utilized sources and emitting no greenhouse gases . as well as some of the benefits
of the much more limited energy sources as hydrocarbons and nuclear fission
(without reprocessing .. Like these currently dominant energy sources, fusion could provide
very high power-generation density and uninterrupted power delivery (due to the fact that it
is not dependent on the weather, unlike wind and solar power ..
In nutshell the advantages are;
The non - radioactive part of the fuel is abundant on a worldwide scale and practically
inexhaustible.
The radioactive part of the fuel (tritium . is generated in the reactor itself and is
burned producing He and neutrons.
The ash (He . is safe and non- radioactive.
The quantities of the fuel and ash are very small (a few hundreds of kilograms per
year and reactor. .
The biological hazards presented by fusion waste are, after 10 years, one thousand
times smaller than those associated with fission waste.
14 Conclusion
14.1 How safe is Fusion?
The following explanation focuses on magnetic confinement of deuterium-tritium-
fuelled plasmas, such as those in ITER, but similar or even stronger arguments apply also to
other fuel combinations and to laser fusion.
The fusion process is inherently safe.
Leak-tight confinement barriers are essential to produce fusion reactions. Equipment
failure quickly leads to plasma extinguishment.
No chain reaction is involved and the reaction is thermally self-limiting.
. There is no danger of a large jump in plasma power output, since normal operation
is close to pressure limits which already maximize the number of fusion reactions that
will occur. In ITER, because of experimental uncertainty, it is possible for the plasma
to operate at somewhat (<1.2 . higher power levels than planned, but these can be
easily brought under control in a matter of seconds
The fusion process is limited to a few seconds burn, without continuous refueling.

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 ITER
Achieving low loss burn conditions is a delicate matter and requires many conditions
to be satisfied - the failure or change of a single one enhances plasma energy losses
and terminates the burn. Halting the fuelling quickly extinguishes the plasma. In
ITER about 0.5 g of fuel is in the machine at any time, and the fuelling/exhaust rate is
also about 0.5 g/s. Even if the exhaust fails, the plasma is quickly poisoned by
impurities, and extinguishes.
The power and energy densities in the reactor and plasma are low.
The main sources of energy which can damage ITER are pressurized coolant,
chemical reactions (e.g. of leaking coolant and hot materials, or of hydrogen and air .,
heat from the fusion reaction in the plasma, and magnetic energy in the coils. There
are no large stores of chemicals or other energy sources able to cause powerful
explosions. ITER is designed such that its hardware avoids the unexpected release
from energy sources or mitigates the consequences of any such release to acceptable
levels not only for the general public, to ensure the ultimate safety of the plant, but
also for plant operators, to protect their investment. To help in these respects, ITER
has large heat transfer surfaces and heat sinks which transfer and absorb energy,
maintaining low temperatures and avoiding melting of components. The same will be
true in a power reactor, but the margins needed for ITER should be able to be
reduced, and the overall power density should be able to be increased.
The reaction products are either absorbed in surrounding structural or tritium-
breeding materials (neutrons ., or are non-radioactive (helium ..
In ITER nearly all materials around the plasma are to shield the surrounding
equipment, whereas in a power reactor the bulk will breed tritium from lithium-
containing materials, ready to burn it in the plasma.
Activated structural materials from neutron irradiation are not mobile except dust and
corrosion products which form only a small fraction.
The neutrons produce activated waste materials. Dust is formed by sputtering from high
energy particles in the plasma hitting the surrounding material surfaces. Although not
necessarily a problem itself, this dust can become contaminated with tritium. Coolant
channels can become corroded, especially in high nuclear radiation fields, and the corrosion
can dislodge and be freed if a coolant pipe breaks. In ITER the coolant chemical control
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 ITER
system is capable of maintaining coatings of activated corrosion products well below 10 kg
per loop, with less than 60 gas loose material or ions in the coolant (these limits are used in
accident analysis .. In a power reactor this aspect will be further optimized.
Negligible operational environmental impact.
The potential risk to the local environment is limited and is reduced as low as judged
reasonably achievable by the independent nuclear regulator in the country concerned.
Negligible long term environmental impact.
Neither the provision of fuel or plant hardware, nor its removal after use, places an
intolerable and uncertain burden on current or future generations.

14.2 fusion for the near future

Thanks to JET and other fusion experiments, major progress has been made towards
developing fusion as a viable energy source, concludes Dr.Robinson. Its time to move on a
number of fronts, he says. We now have a good understanding of how the materials used in
fusion plants might behave although further tests in a dedicated facility are still required, and
we understand how to deal with the short-lived waste products that fusion plants will
produce. These short-lived waste products are the parts of the machine that would be
bombarded with neutrons from the fusion process, and so become radioactive. With careful
material selection and recycling, these wastes would last for significantly less time than
fission waste 30 to 40 years compared with hundreds of years. Dr Robinson continues,
When external costs are included, we have calculated that fusion costs will be comparable
with clean coal or any base load renewable energy technologies and if you take into
account that there would be no need for environmental remediation with fusion, the
economics of fusion become even more favorable.

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 ITER

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