New hope for ultimate clean energy: fusion power

[n2doc]

April 12, 2010 By Bob Beale
(PhysOrg.com) -- Imagine if you could generate electricity using nuclear power that emitted no radioactivity: it would be the answer to the world's dream of finding a clean, sustainable energy source.


That is the great hope raised by researchers who believe they have found a radical new path to the ultimate goal of solving the world's energy crisis through nuclear fusion power, as detailed in a paper published in the journal Energy and Environmental Science.

The international team of researchers - led by Emeritus Professor Heinrich Hora, of the University of New South Wales Department of Theoretical Physics -has shown through computational studies that a special fuel ignited by brief but powerful pulses of energy from new high-energy lasers may be the key to a success that has long eluded physicists.

The intense laser beam would be used to ignite a fuel made of light hydrogen and boron-11. The resulting ignition would be largely free of radioactive emissions and would release more than enough energy to generate electricity.

The amount of radiation released would be even less than that emitted by current power stations that burn coal, which contains trace amounts of uranium. In another plus, the fuel source is plentiful and readily accessible and the waste product of ignition would be clean helium gas.

"This has the potential to be the best route to fusion energy," says Steve Haan, an expert in nuclear fusion at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, in a news report in the Royal Chemical Society's Highlights in Chemical Technology.

more

http://www.physorg.com/news190295239.html

[scubadude]

1. Yes, and our grandchildren may benefit from something like this in their lifetimes, we won't.

These technologies are decades away from implementation. Too bad they just don't get going on the liquid fuel thorium reactor now. If they did so we could have clean energy and burn up the existing waste. I believe it is the answer, and the technology was proven in the 50's and 60's...

Scuba

[Statistical]

2. Exactly. Unless there is an unexpected breakthrough...

the most likley timeline is:
ITER construction is starting now
ITER goes online 2018

DEMO construction begins 2024
DEMO goes online 2033

DEMO is a prototype commercial reactor. It won't "sell power" but it will operate like a commercial reactor without electrical output monitored.

The goal for international fusion community is based on the results/economics of DEMO we will see commercial fusion reactors built in 2040+.

If we don't resolve GHG before then it likely won't matter.

Now there is always the one in a million breakthrough technology that causes a jump in technology but likely Fusion power is something our children or grandchildren will use.

[Kolesar]

3. A just machine to make big decisions

Programmed by fellows with compassion and vision
We'll be clean when their work is done
We'll be eternally free yes and eternally young

What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free

http://www.stlyrics.com/songs/d/donaldfagen18793/igy512966.html

[bvar22]

4. Don't need it.

There is this guy down in Mississippi who has invented a machine that makes more energy than it consumes.
It looks like one of those rotary Hot Dog cookers.

All we have to do now is make them big enough, and problem solved.
We'll be looking for places to put all our excess free energy!

He is looking for funding,
but you can send it directly to me.
I'll pass it on.

[struggle4progress]

5. ... Hydrogen-boron fusion requires ion energies or temperatures almost ten times higher than those

for D–T fusion ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aneutronic_fusion#Current_research

One should, of course, support some research like this, but the endless hype rapidly becomes tiresome. The engineering problems associated with industrial scale energy production, for any of the potential fusion schemes, remain nearly unsurmountable, even if one could devise (very expensive) experiments suggesting that significant net energy gain is possible in principle

[OnlinePoker]

6. The first time I heard about fusion was '71 and I was in grade 4

30 years from now, this will be powering the world I was told. I excitedly told my mother that night and she said "I'll believe it when I see it." Now, it's still 30 years in the future. My mom's still around, but I don't think she'll make it to 110 to see it happen.