Fusion research: energetic contribution to clean, green power

The vision of nuclear fusion is a safe, clean and virtually limitless energy source. Sweden´s research community is participating in an international collaboration that will bring the nuclear fusion vision out of the laboratory and into the reality of large-scale energy production.

Europe currently derives around one-third of its energy needs from nuclear fission. As many European countries have taken the decision to decommission their first- and second-generation nuclear power plants over the coming 20 years or so, an alternative, reliable energy source will be required to fill the gap. Many see nuclear fusion as the natural successor.

Copying the Sun´s process


Nuclear fusion is the energy-producing process that takes place continuously in the Sun and other stars. It requires extremely high temperatures - the core of the Sun is 10-15 million degrees Celsius - to fuse Hydrogen nuclei into Helium nuclei plus free neutrons and energy.
To produce energy using this process on Earth, different fusion reactions are involved. The most suitable reaction occurs between the nuclei of the two heavy isotopes of Hydrogen: Deuterium and Tritium.

The reward of getting nuclear fusion to work at a commercial, power-production scale is a virtually limitless energy source: at the right scale, nuclear fusion produces more energy than it requires.

The elements required to produce fusion energy are found in abundance on Earth, or can easily be manufactured from plentiful elements such as Lithium. To get an idea of the potential benefits of this energy source, the lifetime energy needs of the average inhabitant of an industrialized country can be met using just ten grams of Deuterium (which can be extracted from 500 litres of water) and 15 grams of Tritium (which can be produced from 30 grams of Lithium, a metal that is plentiful in the Earth´s crust).

At the temperatures needed for the Deuterium-Tritium fusion reaction (over 100 million degrees Celsius), the fuel is no longer a gas, but a plasma in which electrons have broken free from the atomic nuclei.

Generating power on a commercial basis from nuclear fusion, however, will require a great deal of development work, especially in controlling the very high-temperature plasma on a large scale and developing materials for a fusion power station.

Pan-European effort


In Europe, fusion research is coordinated by the European Commission. It is based on the Euratom treaty and is a ‘Priority Thematic Area´ in the sixth EU Frame-work Programme (2002 to 2006). The European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA) provides for fusion technology activities, collective use of the facility Joint European Torus (JET) and European contributions to international collaborations such as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER).

JET is the largest fusion experiment to date - holding the world record for released fusion power at 16 MW, but ITER, based in south-east France, will take the technology to a new level and provide an experimental fusion power plant that will produce 500 MW for between five and ten minutes when it becomes operational in about ten years´ time. ITER´s power output is between five and ten times greater than the power needed to heat its plasmas, and this net energy source is enough to meet the needs of a medium-sized town.

jet is a European project run through the collaboration of around 30 different universities and laboratories. By population, Sweden is one of the largest participants in the experiment.

One of those who has had a long involvement in jet is Professor Torbjörn Hellsten at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH). “I would say JET has been one of the most successful multinational experiments of its kind. It has really pushed forward our understanding of fusion reactions and plasmas very well. I think we can attribute this success to the good design of the project from the start, coupled with an intense level of collaboration across Europe - including an important contribution from Sweden.

Professor James Drake of KTH echoes this view: “The high participation rate and spirit of collaboration of the various national research units has been the key to the success of JET. This bodes well for the success of ITER."

Limitless energy?


Having moved basic understanding of plasmas along beyond original expectations, jet is now playing a key role in the planning and preparation of ITER - one of the world´s most significant experiments - one that holds the promise of virtually limitless energy for future generations.

Mark James

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