Inertial Laser Fusion for Energy Transition

Extract

[...] DEMO (« Demonstration Power Plant ») - Creation of several demonstrators - Fuel: deuterium and lithium tritium - Electricity production planned for 2040 D. ITER - Project existing since 1985 - Official since 2006 - China, EU, Japan, India, Korea, USA, Russia - Objective: production of 500 MWt of energy with external heat supply of 50 MW - 2019: only 6.5 years left until "First Plasma" according to project managers (project at « Cost of realization of power generation plants with an inertial laser fusion installation E. HiPER ~ 3 billion $ F. LIFE: ~ 6.4 billion $ G. [...]

[...] At equal mass of fuel fusion reactions produce ~ 5 times more energy than current fission reactions. - Fusion reaction problem: difficult technology to master confinement of particles & obtaining very high density of matter to push nuclei to fuse + reproduction of gravitational collapse impossible - Advantage = - No chain reaction possible unlike fission - Abundance of deuterium/tritium - Wastes last ~ 100 years - Enjeu = maintaining the conditions necessary for fusion - Fission = separation of a nucleus (unstable) into 2 lighter nuclei by fission production of heat/energy - Fission reaction = chain reaction: neutron on massive nucleus 2 lighter nuclei + neutrons sent to massive nuclei etc. [...]

[...] ITER operation fusion 2027, "First Plasma" for ~ for project completion L. DEMO for 2040 initially, postponed to 2054 The reasons for moving to fusion energy - The international community must reduce its carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 - The solution to this problem: nuclear energy zero carbon emissions - Fusion reactions produce more energy than they need commercial and environmental interest - Elimination of polluting fossil energies - No longer need to find renewable energies - Disadvantages and risks: - Radioactive waste (how to store - Fusion of the reactor core and other severe accidents with their consequences on the environment Conclusion - Electricity production by fusion = future solution - Reduction of costs p/r to fossil and renewable energies - More or less environmental impact - No need for other energy sources as it produces more energy than required to function - Comprises of great difficulties - Difficulty in understanding hot plasmas + difficulty in creating tokamaks - Enormous creation costs, often exceeding initial estimates and partially paid by the taxpayer - Obtaining the initial temperature and density to reproduce gravitational collapse = very complex - Continuous production difficult to maintain - Need for very large facilities where to place them? [...]

[...] HiPER - Laser installation whose goal is to demonstrate the feasibility of laser fusion energy production - Majorly European project: Germany, France, Italy, Greece, United Kingdom, Spain, Czech Republic, Russia, Poland, Portugal (other possible international collaborators = China, United States, South Korea, Japan and Canada) - Will comprise 28 laboratories divided among these 10 countries - Nominal frequency = 10 Hz ~ 5Hz - Yield 20 % - Reactor capable of sustaining fusion reactions while recovering the produced energy electricity - However: be more efficient and less expensive than the NIF - Project currently at a standstill (2019) B. LIFE (LLNL) - Presented at 18e meeting of the American Nuclear Society - Project aiming to develop NIF technologies in inertial confinement by laser to transform them into commercially viable power plants - Cost reduction using mass-produced fuels, simplified maintenance and creation of more efficient diodes - Project abandoned in 2013 due to recurring ignition problems creation of LIFE 2.0 (too expensive) and LIFE 3.0 projects C. [...]

[...] ITER: 12.8 billion ? in 2013 H. DEMO: unknown figure, estimated at several billion ? Estimation of electricity production cost - Approximately 75 MEUR/kWh - Less expensive than coal, gas and nuclear power - No future taxes on CO2 emissions - Fusion energy is between the cost of wind and solar BUT allows production all day - Low external costs due to little environmental impact Agenda, perspectives and evolutions I. [...]