Transcript Star Power
Star Power A Nuclear Fusion Story Nuclear Fusion The smashing together of two nuclei to produce tremendous energy The reaction occurring in the Sun Very little radioactive remnants compared to fission. First Uses The first application of fusion technology was in thermonuclear weapons. The next plan was to apply the technology to power creation I will focus on the Toroidal methods Sober Lessons Immediately after World War II, work began on the design of the first fusion reactor Taking an early lead, the British built ZETA, the Zero Energy Toroidal Assembly They were successful, however the system design used more energy than it outputted Note: A Toroidal shape is like the inside of a tire Soviet Extraordinaire In the late 1950’s through the ‘60’s, the Soviets devised and built a TOKAMAK style reactor. By the ’70’s, 17 tokamaks had been built and there are currently over 100 in operation Tokamak? Stellarators? The purpose behind Tokamaks and Stellarators is to create a spiraling magnetic (helical) field to stabilize plasma Tokamaks achieve this by inductively driving a current into the plasma producing a helical field It is advantageous because it can use that current to heat and stabilize the plasma The Stellarator was originally conceived in Princeton University It produces a helical field by an external current carrying wire It is advantageous because it can be operated at a steady state. So far, the best result are produced by the Tokamak method That’s one bad Tokamak The TFTR, Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor, in the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory , operational in 1976,has set many world records Some Records set highest plasma temperature achieved at 510 million degrees highest controlled power output at 10.7 million watts the list goes on… JET – Joint European Torus JET begins operation in the United Kingdom in 1978, it is the largest operational Tokamak As the largest Tokamak, it is the technology demonstrator for the ITER, the future It has also set many world records 22 megawatts from a single pulse 16 megawatts of power output (surpassing TFTR) The Future ITER – A joint collaboration between Europe, Japan, Russia, and Canada It is to be a Tokamak style reactor three times as large as JET. It will be the result of over 50 years of research and design Its mission is to show the feasibility of Fusion power creation as a future power source. Support ITER CANADA Currently the United States is not funding the ITER project because of the possibility of it being based in Japan If it were to be based in Canada, the US would reconsider funding the project Web Site: http://www.itercanada.com/ Also, I could work there!!!