The ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) Fusion Reactor Project.

What the inside of the reactor should look like.

The ITER project is one of many projects looking into making the first cautious steps to producing safe and stable thermonuclear, or fusion, reactors to provide vast amounts of energy with minimal effect on the environment. Theoretically fusion is a near perfect energy source, but are we actually able to implement it in such a way as to make it a viable option for regular renewable energy? In trying to create an efficient and stable reactor, fusion presents many unique and interesting problems and obstacles that ITER and many other organisations are working towards solving.

Energy is one of the most valuable and sought after resources in modern society. With more and more of our lives becoming computerised and technology becoming increasingly relied upon to make many of our modern products and services possible, energy is in ever increasing demand. As fossil fuels are a finite resource we need to find an alternative energy source that will be able to provide enough power to supply our ever-growing need for energy. The other energy problem we face is an environmental one; fossil fuels produce a lot of pollution that is harming our planet. There are many views on how we can produce this energy without damaging our environment any further mainly using natural energy in we find in nature such as wind, solar and tidal energy. There are also a few projects that look a bit further for a solution, these are looking at the way the sun produces its energy, nuclear fusion.

Fusion is the process of adding two isotopes of hydrogen, deuterium and tritium, producing a more stable helium atom, which, as it is a very stable and inert element, can be used for many applications after its production, such as using it as a protective gas in growing silicon and germanium crystals for microprocessor dies, as shielding gas in arc welding where the materials are easily contaminated by air and in overhead welding as it is less dense than air and therefore rises as it is released compared to many other shielding gasses that will sink and as an atmosphere in which to keep historical documents, In rocketry, helium is used as an ullage medium, the gas pumped into the space between the top of the tank and the fuel, to displace fuel and oxidizers in storage tanks and to condense hydrogen and oxygen to make rocket fuel. It is also used to purge fuel and oxidizer from ground support equipment prior to launch and to pre-cool liquid hydrogen in space vehicles. For example, the Saturn V booster used in the Apollo program needed about 13 million cubic feet (370,000 m3) of helium to launch. Also, liquid helium can be used as a cryogenic material, and is used to cool certain metals to produce superconductivity, such as in superconducting magnets used in magnetic resonance imaging and NMR spectroscopy. This makes nuclear fusion a much cleaner source of energy as the waste is not as toxic as from fission and it can be recycled for many different applications.

Along with this useful by-product from the reaction, a relatively large amount of energy is given out as is shown in the diagram and equation below.

Fusion Reaction Diagram

In terms or powering modern electronics 17.6MeV is a minute amount of energy, but in a fusion reactor there will be billions of these reactions happening simultaneously, producing vast amounts of energy, mainly in the form of heat and high-energy neutron particles which will be the main energy output from the reactor as they carry the most energy and are not affected by the magnetic field needed to contain the plasma in which the fusion reaction is taking place.

All through my studies I have been fascinated by science and physics in particular. During A-Level physics I found both nuclear and particle physics interesting and after looking into nuclear power stations as part of the course have been trying to find out more about the current fusion reactor projects that are going on around the world, trying to find a cleaner renewable energy source that can easily produce enough power to replace current fossil fuel powered power stations.

To find out more about this project, the problems it is trying to overcome and how it is looking at overcoming them, and getting a better grasp on how they are planning to use the technology to generate the electricity using this method I will be looking at the ITER website and using some material from the mailing list that they produce for interested parties. I will also be doing some research into the other projects that are going on and the methods that they are using to overcome similar problems. These include the JET project and DEMO which are both linked with ITER. I shall also use the University library to find out more information about the way nuclear reactors of both varieties work, and how efficient they are to give me a good comparison with which to show which method is more energy efficient environmentally friendly. Along with these sources I am going to try to contact the projects in person and the International Atomic Energy Agency to see if they can provide me with any more up to date or additional information relating to this issue and to see if they can answer any outstanding questions I may have.

Specific research material:
• www.wikipedia.org to give me a place to start with similar projects.
• www.iter.org the projects own website.
• www.jet.efda.org website of the JET project.
• www.iaea.org the international atomic energy agencys’ website.
• Advanced Physics by Tom Duncan