Europe puts France up for reactor (world's 1st fusion reactor will cost $5bil, revolutionize energy)

BBC News ^ | Wednesday, 26 November, 2003 | Dr David Whitehouse

[presidio9]

The European Union has chosen France as its preferred location for a nuclear reactor that scientists hope will revolutionise world power production. It will cost billions to build the fusion machine which releases energy in a similar way to the Sun's furnaces.

Scientists say the new reactor will be the first such prototype to give out a lot more power than it consumes.

International partners in the immense engineering project include the US, China, Japan, Russia and Korea.

Well placed

A final decision on the siting of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (Iter) should come in December at a meeting of officials involved in its planning.

The EU candidate, Cadarache, in southeastern France, is likely face stiff competition from Rokkasho in Japan.

The plant, wherever it is constructed, is expected to generate thousands of jobs.

Spain had initially put forward its own choice of Vandellos but then fell in line with its EU partners when research ministers agreed it could host the administrative headquarters for the European arm of the Iter project.

Europe believes it stands a good chance of hosting the fusion plant.

>A recent report, chaired by Sir David King, chief scientific adviser to the UK Government, said "either (European) site would be likely to win the international site selection".

Star power

The Iter project is the latest stage in the decades-long quest to develop fusion power.

In conventional nuclear power plants, heavy atoms are split to release energy. But in a fusion reactor, energy is harnessed by forcing the nuclei of light atoms together - the same process that takes place at the core of the Sun and makes it shine.

Advocates say commercial fusion plants of the future could be cheap to run and environmentally friendly, with much less radioactive waste produced.

However, developing the necessary technology is proving very expensive and time-consuming.

To use fusion reactions as an energy source, it is necessary to heat a gas to temperatures exceeding 100 million Celsius - many times hotter than the centre of the Sun. At these temperatures, the gas becomes a plasma.

Under these conditions, the plasma particles, from deuterium and tritium, fuse to form helium and high speed neutrons.

A commercial power station will use the heat generated by the energetic neutrons, slowed down by a blanket of denser material (lithium), to generate electricity.

The fuels used are virtually inexhaustible. Deuterium and tritium are both isotopes of hydrogen. Deuterium is extracted from water and tritium is manufactured from a light metal, lithium, which is found all over the world.

One kilogram would produce the same amount of energy as 10,000,000 kg of fossil fuel.

Iter would be the world's largest international cooperative research and development project after the International Space Station.

Its goal will be to produce 500 megawatts of fusion power for 500 seconds or longer during each individual fusion experiment and in doing so demonstrate essential technologies for a commercial reactor.

[presidio9]

The International Thermonuclear Energy Reactor (Iter) is an international collaboration between the EU, USA, Canada, Russia, China and South Korea.

The aim is to design and build a fusion reactor in about a decade at a cost of $5bn. Iter will bridge the gap between current fusion reactors and a commercial plant.

Iter will be based on Jet - the Joint European Torus. In Jet the plasma is shaped like a doenut and confined by a magnetic field.

Coming into operation in 1983, Jet achieved a world record for fusion achieving 12.9 MW output in a 1997 experiment.

The European candidate for the Iter site is situated inland from Marseille on the Mediterranean coast.

Operated by France's Atomic Energy Commission, Cadarache is already the site of extensive fusion research including the Tore Supra tokomak experiment.

[Born Conservative]

Somebody better let Martin Sheen know about this so that he can get his protest signs printed in advance...

[js1138]

This could be as revolutionary as Japan's 10 billion dollar fifth generation computer language that revolutionized data processing a decade ago.

[ken5050]

Forget Japan..as long as Kim is in control of DNK, with its missiles..the plant is a target...

[50sDad]

Explain this to me...somebody is on the edge of fusion power, and the D@mn Luddite moron Democrats won't let us drill in Anwar, a God-fosaken treeless frozen wasteland, in the name of making us independent from murderous, Jihad-happy terrorist towelheads.

[Aquinasfan]

Somebody better let Martin Sheen know about this so that he can get his protest signs printed in advance...

Exactly.

Is this experimental, or has this technology already been demonstrated to work?

[RS]

"Spain had initially put forward its own choice of Vandellos but then fell in line with its EU partners ...."

Fell inline with it's EU MASTERS is more like it ...

With the big bosses skimming off the cream of the "Union" how long will it be until some country needs to figure just how to unscramble the EUROmess ?

[AngryJawa]

The European Union has chosen France as its preferred location for a nuclear reactor...

France is preferred because, if the reactor goes Chernobyl, nothing important will be destroyed. 8^)

It seriously ticks me off that the Greens have managed to kill reactor construction here, yet France can build as many as needed.

[SAJ]

The process is well known; the technology to implement the process does not exist. They're playing on the come.

Wonder what the froggie word for ''boondoggle'' is...

[Semper Vigilantis]

I hope they build better reactors than cars. Remember "LeCar"?

[finnman69]

[XJarhead]

Nobody has yet figured out a way to make a sustainable fusion reaction.

[Prodigal Son]

It seriously ticks me off that the Greens have managed to kill reactor construction here, yet France can build as many as needed.

Plus, they sank Greenpeace's boat. Perhaps the French have found an adversary they can defeat.

[Jambe]

Wonder what the froggie word for ''boondoggle'' is...

Kerry

[Cooter]

There's an experimental fusion reactor in the heart of Cambridge, MA and the greenies there are oblivious.

[ameribbean expat]

shouldn't they be required to display an ability to send their lone aircraft carrier on a sustained deployment first? talk about letting the kids run with scissors.

[SAJ]

Exactly right. Hence, as noted, the technology to implement the process doesn't exist. I believe we're saying the same thing, are we not?

It's a looooooong step from fusing a few atoms under artificial lab conditions to producing commercially feasible amounts of energy on a controlled and controllable basis. But, cheer up, it's only Wonderland taxpayers' money. :^)

[CasearianDaoist]

You know that we arew footing tem percent of the bill for this, maybe even more?

[SAJ]

Sure. Not happy about it, either.

BTW, what aren't we footing 10% of the bill for? :^)

[Two_Sheds]

Quite simply put, there is no technology more important to the future of the planet than fusion. It is an inexhaustable power source and will be critical to the planet's advancement to a Type 1 civilization.

It doesn't matter how much it costs, the benefits will far outweight the costs.