Sustainable Energy

Energy from Nuclear Fusion

Prof. Ing. Francesco Corvaro

Email: f.corvaro@univpm.it

Introduction
• We saw that the use of either fast breeder reactors or
thermal reactors with e ective fuel reprocessing, would
provide much of our energy needs for a substantial period
of time.

• The decision to utilize nuclear ssion energy must deal

with concerns over reactor safety, nuclear waste disposal,
and the security of nuclear materials.

• An alternative approach that makes use of the enormous

energy associated with the nuclear force is fusion energy.

Introduction
• Figure shows that the binding energy per nucleon of a nucleus increases
with nuclear size for very light nuclei.

• Thus, binding together two light nuclei to produce a heavier nucleus (up
to about A=55) is an exothermic process and can produce usable energy.

• Fusion has several signi cant advantages over ssion, such as

• A potentially inexpensive and plentiful supply of fuel.

• Reactions that are inherently easier to control and are therefore much
safer.

• Substantially reduced environmental hazards from reactor by-

products.
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 Introduction

Introduction

• However, at present, fusion power is not technologically

feasible because of the fundamental di erences between
the ssion and fusion processes.

• This section reviews the physics of nuclear fusion and

overviews the e orts to produce a viable fusion reactor.

Fusion energy
• The bombardment of a ssile nucleus with a low-energy neutron
provides enough excess energy to put the nucleus in an energy
level that is above the Coulomb barrier.

• This causes the nucleus to undergo induced ssion, and the

ssion fragments are repelled from each other by the repulsive
Coulombic interaction between the protons.

• To fuse two light nuclei, they must be pushed together against

the Coulomb force.

• The nuclei must have enough energy and be in proximity of one

another for a long enough time to get through or over the
Coulomb barrier.
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 Fusion energy
• Once the nuclei are close enough together long enough,
there is a probability that the strong interaction will take
over and fuse the nuclei, thus releasing energy.

• It is certainly straightforward to accelerate nuclei to these

energies, even in very modest particle accelerators, and
to collide them with other nuclei to produce fusion
reactions.

• Unfortunately, in such a situation, the energy expenditure

for the accelerator is substantially greater than the energy
gain from the fusion.

Fusion energy
• Thus, although this is a useful way of learning about
fusion reactions in the laboratory, it is not a practical
means of obtaining energy.

• So, to make use of fusion energy, it is necessary to create

conditions in the laboratory that are compatible with
fusion but that do not require an excessive expenditure of
energy.

• This generally means making a collection of nuclei that is

dense enough and hot enough to undergo fusion.

Fusion energy
• From a practical standpoint, it is desirable to reduce the Coulombic
repulsion by using nuclei with as few positively charged protons as
possible.

• Thus, although it might be possible, in principle, to fuse two aluminum

nuclei (13 protons each) to form an iron nucleus (26 protons), it is not a
productive way to approach this problem.

• The simplest fusion process might appear to be the fusion of two

protons, or the so-called p-p process; that is, the fusion of two
hydrogen (1H) nuclei.

• However, two protons cannot form a bound state, and p-p fusion
requires a simultaneous β+ decay process in which one of the protons
is converted to a neutron to give
 Fusion energy

• Here d is the deuteron, or the nucleus of a 2H atom, that

is, a bound pair consisting of a neutron and a proton.

• Because β+ decay is involved, the weak interaction is, at

least partly, responsible for p-p fusion. As a result, it is
very di cult to cause this reaction to occur.

Fusion energy

• Fusion processes involving deuterons (i.e., nuclei of 2H

atoms) are of importance, and the simplest of these is d-p
fusion

• where, for the purpose of energy calculations, the 3He on

the right-hand side refers to the nucleus of a 3He atom.
Alternatively, atomic masses may be used for the process
2H + 1H → 3He + ɣ.

Fusion energy
• In either case, the number of electrons must be
conserved in the process because weak interactions are
not involved. The energy release, Q, is shown in the
equation. The most obvious process involving the fusion
of two deuterons is the formation of 4He:

• However, this process is unlikely because the large

amount of energy released makes the 4He nucleus
unstable and generally results in the release of one of the
neutrons or one of the protons.
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 Fusion energy
• Consequently, there are two more likely modes of d-d
fusion:

• and

• A nal process of importance is the fusion of a deuteron

with a triton (i.e., a 3H nucleus). This is d-t fusion:

Fusion energy
• This process releases a substantial amount of energy and is
of particular importance, as will be seen, for the operation of
a controlled fusion reactor.

• An understanding of the fusion processes that produce

energy in the sun is helpful. The sun, like most stars,
produces energy primarily by fusing four hydrogen nuclei (1H)
together into one helium nucleus (4He):

• where two of the fusing protons must be converted into

neutrons by weak β+ decay processes.

Fusion energy
• The four hydrogen nuclei do not fuse simultaneously to
form helium.

• Instead, the helium forms in a series of steps. The rst

step of this fusion process is the fusion of two protons.

• In principle, two deuterons could then fuse according to

equation to form a 4He nucleus, although, as explained,
thisis not likely.

• A more likely process is p-d fusion, to form 3He. Two 3He

nuclei will then most likely fuse according to the reaction
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 Fusion energy
• This overall process is the most common method of
energy production in the sun and is referred to as the
proton-proton cycle (or p-p cycle).

• Although other processes are going on as well, the p-p

cycle produces about 85% of the energy from the sun.

• The total energy associated with the p-p cycle is Q = 26.7

MeV, most of which is eventually converted into solar
radiation.

• All of the steps in this process occur slowly.

Fusion energy
• Equation p + p → d + e+ + e involves the weak interaction;
equations d + p → 3He + ɣ and 3He + 3He → 4He + 21H + ɣ are
limited by the amount of 2H and 3He in the sun and, in the
latter case, an increased Coulomb barrier.

• At the present stage of the sun’s evolution, most of the nuclei

are still unreacted 1H. However, equation p + p → d + e+ + e is
the most limiting factor in the energy production in the sun.

• This is actually a good situation because it results in an energy

output from the sun that is compatible with the requirements
for life on earth and ensures that the sun’s hydrogen supply is
not depleted too quickly.

Fusion energy
• One might suspect that if the conditions present in the sun
could be reproduced in the laboratory, then a functioning
fusion reactor would be possible.

• This is not true. The sun consists of about 1057 protons (more
or less). Its total energy output is about 3.8 x 1026 W.

• Since one p-p cycle produces about 27 MeV (or 4 x 10−12 J),
about (3.8 x 1026W)/(4 x 10−12J) ≈ 1038 p-p cycles occur every
second, corresponding to the fusing of 4 x 1038 protons.

• As a fraction of the total number of protons in the sun (about

1057), this corresponds to 1 in (1057/4 x 1038), or 1 in 2.5 x 1018.
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 Fusion energy
• If the sun produced energy at a constant rate and was able to
fuse all of its protons, then it would exist for 2.5 x 1018 seconds,
or about 80 billion years.

• These assumptions are not exactly true, and the sun’s life
expectancy is somewhat less than this.

• However, if a fusion reactor lled with 1H nuclei were

constructed that approximated the conditions in the sun, then it
would take several tens of billions of years to extract all of the
available fusion energy from the fuel.

• This is obviously not practical and is the reason that p-p fusion
is not a consideration for fusion energy production on earth.

Fusion energy
• To properly assess the usefulness of other fusion
reactions for the production of energy, it is necessary to
examine a bit more of the physics of these processes.

• It is clearly advantageous to use isotopes of hydrogen

rather than helium because of the reduced Coulomb
barrier.

• In general, the greater the number of neutrons, then the

greater the strength of the strong interaction that will fuse
the nucleons together once the nuclei get past the
Coulomb barrier.

Fusion energy
• This is seen for d-d and d-t fusion in Figure on the next
slide.

• Here the relative probability of fusion (the fusion cross

section) is plotted as a function of energy.

• These reactions correspond to equations d + d → 3He + n

and d + d → 3H + p for d-d fusion and to equation d + t →
4He + n for d-t fusion.

• For d-d fusion, the data in the gure are the sum of both
reactions.
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 Fusion energy

Fusion energy

• The di erences between d-d and d-t fusion shown in the

gure clearly indicate that achieving d-t fusion in the
laboratory should be much easier than achieving d-d
fusion.

• For this reason, laboratory experiments have

concentrated largely on d-t fusion, although, the
development of laboratory d-d fusion may be considered
the ultimate goal of research in this area.

Magnetic Con nement

reactors
• The basic aim of fusion reactor development is to achieve a
situation where the energy input into the reactor that is
necessary to maintain fusion conditions is less than the energy
that is extracted from the reactor.

• Thus, there is a net gain of energy from the fusion.

• The traditional approach to fusion reactors is to achieve the

necessary conditions by using a very high temperature.

• This approach seems to be justi ed by previous gure, where

increasing temperature gives rise to an increase in the kinetic
energy of the nuclei and a subsequent increase in the probability
of fusion.
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 Magnetic Con nement
reactors
• For the thermal energy of a particle to reach, say, 10 keV, as is typical in the
gure, the temperature must be about 100 million degrees (K).

• The major problem with achieving a useful fusion reaction is to obtain this
temperature in order to get the nuclei close enough together and to keep
them in that state until a sustained fusion reaction occurs.

• At these temperatures, all matter is fully ionized and becomes a plasma;

that is, the electrons are stripped from the nuclei, and the negatively
charged electrons and positively charged nuclei can move about
independently.

• Although the positive and negative charges in the plasma are not bound
together, the plasma as a whole contains the same number of positive and
negative charges as the initial neutral atoms and remains electrically neutral.

Magnetic Con nement

reactors
• The obvious di culty in traditional fusion research is the
means by which a plasma at such a high temperature can
be contained.

• All solid materials will melt and vaporize long before this
temperature is reached.

• There are two traditional approaches to containing the

plasma and obtaining the necessary fusion conditions:
magnetic con nement and inertial con nement.

Magnetic Con nement

reactors
• In a magnetic con nement reactor, the charged nature of the
electrons and ionized nuclei is utilized.

• Because the ions and electrons in a plasma are free to move

independently, their motion can be controlled by the
application of a suitable magnetic eld.

• Magnetic con nement reactors utilize magnetic elds to

direct the particles in a plasma in order to prevent them from
colliding with the walls of the containment vessel.

• Two basic geometries are used for these devices: a linear

geometry and a toroidal geometry.
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 Magnetic Con nement
reactors
• The linear (or mirror) geometry uses a plasma column that is pinched or
closed o at the ends.

• The plasma is contained in a cylindrical chamber, and an axial magnetic

eld is provided by coils around the outside of the chamber.

• Basically the particles travel in a region of comparatively low eld along the
length of the cylinder and are re ected from the ends of the cylinder by
regions of greater eld.

• In general, progress toward the conditions necessary for a sustained fusion

reaction in a mirror con nement device has fallen short of that achieved in
other reactor designs.

• As a result, most current fusion research is directed toward the toroidal

reactors and inertial con nement reactors.

Magnetic Con nement

reactors
• In a toroidal reactor, the plasma column may be closed in the
form of a toroid, in which case, the particles travel along toroidal
eld lines produced by currents in coils around the toroid.

• The currents produced by the charged particles in this direction

are referred to as poloidal currents.

• In this geometry, the windings of the coils are closer together on

the inside of the torus than on the outside, resulting in a stronger
magnetic eld near the inside.

• The consequence of this is that the particles slowly spiral

outward, toward the region of weaker eld and eventually strike
the outer wall of the chamber.

Magnetic Con nement

reactors
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 Magnetic Con nement
reactors
• To compensate for this e ect, an additional (poloidal) eld
is applied.

• The net eld lines are helical in shape, and the particles
avoid interaction with the chamber walls as they follow
these curved eld lines.

• Probably the most successful reactor based on this

design is the tokamak (an acronym for the Russian name
of the device: toroidal’naya kamera s magnitnymi
katushkami, or toroidal chamber with magnetic coils.

Magnetic Con nement

reactors

Magnetic Con nement

reactors
• In this device, the toroidal current is actually the current associated
with the ow of charged plasma particles around the torus.

• One should not necessarily think of a toroid with the general

(donut-like) shape illustrated in gure because many designs have
a poloidal diameter that is not much smaller than the toroidal
diameter.

• In fact, many designs do not have a poloidal cross section that is

circular.

• One of the more successful designs has been the spherical

tokamak, which resembles a sphere with a circular hole through it
(i.e., the so-called cored-apple geometry)
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 Magnetic Con nement
reactors
• The most recent and signi cant
development in magnetic fusion
experiments has been the
International Thermonuclear
Reactor (ITER).

• This is a joint project of the

European Union, China, India,
Japan, Russia, South Korea, and
the United States.

• Canada was originally involved in

the project but withdrew. This is a
tokamak-type magnetic
con nement reactor located in
southern France.

Magnetic Con nement

reactors
• These reactors use a combination of deuterium and tritium as
fuel, and it is hoped that they will achieve conditions that will
initiate a sustained fusion reaction.

• In this condition, some of the energy produced by the fusion

can be used to maintain the conditions of the plasma, and the
remainder can be extracted as heat.

• The design goals of the ITER are to produce 500 MW of heat

output for 50 MW of energy input.

• In an operational power reactor, excess heat is used to generate

steam to drive turbine/ generators and generate electricity.

Inertial Con nement

reactors
• Inertial con nement refers to the situation where the fusion
fuel is con ned by inertial forces in the plasma itself.

• Most experiments that fall into this category are referred to

as laser fusion experiments.

• A pellet of fuel (in most cases, a mixture of deuterium and

tritium contained in a millimeter-sized capsule is bombarded
by high-energy laser pulses from several directions at once.

• Often the fuel capsule is contained inside a cylindrical

chamber referred to as a hohlraum, which converts the laser
radiation into X-rays that are absorbed by the fuel pellet.
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 Inertial Con nement
reactors

Inertial Con nement

reactors
• The fuel pellet heats rapidly to a temperature that is hopefully
suitable for fusion to take place.

• The actual processes that take place in the pellet as it heats are
quite complex.

• The laser radiation (a) is absorbed by the fuel pellet, heating it from
the outside.

• The heat (b) propagates through the pellet, transforming the outer
portions into a plasma.

• This outer (c) plasma atmosphere is driven o as it heats and

expands. This process is referred to as ablation.

Inertial Con nement

reactors
The remaining core (d) of
the pellet is compressed.
This results as the outer
portion of the pellet
expands in an equal and
opposite reaction
(according to Newton’s
laws), pushing the inner
portion of the pellet
inward. These are the
inertial forces referred to
in the name of the
process.
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 Inertial Con nement
reactors
• Because of the large amount of energy absorbed from the
laser beam, the density of the pellet core can be
compressed to densities of several thousand times the
density of water.

• It is interesting to note that the laser currently being used

for this experiment at Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory in California produces an output of 750 TW.

• That is 50 times the average power consumption

worldwide.

Inertial Con nement

reactors
• However, the laser produces energy in pulses that are
only 2.4 ns long.

• One pulse corresponds to 750 TW x 2.4 ns = 1.8 MJ, or

about the energy used by a typical automobile to travel a
few hundred meters.

• Thus, although this is not really a lot of energy, it is

concentrated into a very small volume during a very short
period of time.

Progress toward a Fusion

reactor
• As explained, it is necessary to achieve conditions for the
plasma where the density of nuclei is great enough, the
temperature is high enough, and the conditions are
maintained long enough to cause su cient fusion to occur
in order to sustain a reaction.

• These conditions can be quanti ed in terms of the Lawson

parameter, nτ, which is the product of the number density of
nuclei, n, and the containment time, τ.

• To sustain a fusion reaction, the temperature must reach at

least 200 MK, and the Lawson parameter must satisfy the
following relationship (the Lawson criterion): nτ>1020 sm-3
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 Progress toward a Fusion
reactor
• The de nition of containment time for inertial con nement fusion is fairly
clear but is less obvious for magnetic con nement.

• For magnetic con nement reactors, the magnetic elds that con ne the
plasma are pulsed, and the con nement time is the duration of the eld
pulse.

• Figure shows the relationship of the relevant quantities for di erent

fusion reactor designs.

Progress toward a Fusion

reactor
• The development of a ssion reactor occurred very rapidly after
an understanding of the fundamental physics was achieved.

• Progress in the development of a viable fusion reactor has

been much slower.

• Work thus far has dealt almost exclusively with the use of
deuterium-tritium mixtures for fuel.

• Experimental laboratory reactors have ful lled the Lawson

criterion, but a situation where there is a net gain in energy
from a self-sustaining reaction (some-times called ignition) has
not yet been reliably achieved.

Progress toward a Fusion

reactor
• Progress toward this goal for magnetic con nement
reactors and for inertial con nement reactors is illustrated,
respectively.

• The light blue area is the region where ignition occurs and
net energy is produced.
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 Progress toward a Fusion
reactor
• Generally speaking, the progression of data points toward the light
blue region represents progress in fusion reactor development as a
function of time.

• For example the general trend of the points from the lower left to
the upper right of the gure represents the development of fusion
reactors from the late 1960s using milliwatt lasers to the present
decade using terawatt lasers.

• In the case of inertial con nement, the arrow represents a new and
hopeful approach to laser fusion. When the fuel pellet (having been
irradiated with the laser radiation) is at its maximum density and
temperature, a second laser pulse is aimed at the fuel. This drives
the center of the pellet to a higher density and temperature, much
as the rst pulse did, and pushes the conditions closer to ignition.

Progress toward a Fusion

reactor

• Much is left to achieve in fusion research before a viable

reaction can be obtained.

• This is presumably, at best, a task that requires e ort on a

timescale of several decades.

• Plans for the ITER anticipate that a sustained d-t reaction,

producing a ratio of power out to power in of 10 to 1, will
be achieved by 2026.

Progress toward a Fusion

reactor
• Once a viable reactor has been developed, it can be
utilized for the commercial production of electricity.

• This reactor utilizes a deuterium-tritium mixture for fuel

and produces energy by means of the d-t fusion reaction.

• This approach brings up the question of fuel availability.

• Deuterium (2H) is a naturally occurring isotope of

hydrogen and is present in all naturally occurring
hydrogen with a natural abundance of 0.0156%, or 1
deuterium atom for every 100/(0.000156) = 6410
hydrogen atoms.
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 Progress toward a Fusion
reactor

Progress toward a Fusion

reactor
• Thus, natural seawater contains deuterium, and this can
be readily extracted.

• If a d-d fusion reactor were feasible, then the energy

content of the deuterium in the oceans would ful ll
humanity’s needs for a period comparable to the life
expectancy of the sun.

• Even taking into account expected increases in energy

use and even if only a small fraction of the ocean’s
deuterium was used, this represents a virtually limitless
source of energy.

Progress toward a Fusion

reactor
• Because the possibility of d-d fusion in a reactor is
uncertain, it is necessary to begin with an assessment of
d-t fusion, which requires a consideration of tritium
availability.

• Tritium is not a naturally occurring isotope of hydrogen. It

is unstable and decays by β- decay with a half-life of
about 12 years.

• Thus, any tritium to be used in a fusion reactor must be

created arti cially.
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 Progress toward a Fusion
reactor
• The reactor design shown illustrates that the region where the fusion
occurs is surrounded by a jacket containing lithium.

• This design, along the lines of a liquid metal–cooled fast breeder reactor,
transfers the heat produced to water to produce steam, but it also
breeds fuel, tritium in this case.

• Natural lithium consists of about 7% 6Li and 93% 7Li and is a useful
material in this respect.

• Equation shows that the d-t fusion reaction produces neutrons. When
these neutrons are incident on natural lithium, one of the following
reactions can occur:

• + n → 3H + 4He (Q = 4.78 MeV) and 7Li + n → 3H + 4He + n (Q = -2.47

6Li

MeV)

Progress toward a Fusion

reactor
• 6Li + n → 3H + 4He (Q = 4.78 MeV)

• 7Li + n → 3H + 4He + n (Q = -2.47 MeV)

• The rst reaction is exothermic and has a large cross

section, while the second reaction has a smaller cross
section and is endothermic.

• The rst reaction is therefore useful for producing tritium

from lithium. The availability of fusion power from the d-t
reaction is limited by the availability of 6Li nuclei to breed
tritium and is also dependent on the design and e ciency
of the lithium blanket.

Progress toward a Fusion

reactor
• The lifetime of d-t fusion as a means of supplying our
energy needs is unclear.

• There is considerable uncertainty in the amount of lithium

available on earth.

• At present, the demand for lithium is relatively small, and

the price is relatively low.

• This means that there is very little incentive to explore

new lithium resources or to develop more e cient
methods for its extraction.
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 Progress toward a Fusion
reactor
• The best estimate of about 1.7 x 107 t of useful terrestrial
lithium suggests that d-t fusion is an energy resource that
could supply our total energy needs for between 500 and
1000 years.

• A timeline for the development of an operational

commercial fusion power reactor is uncertain.

• Although many estimates put the development of such a

facility somewhere around 2050, much basic scienti c
development is still required before the technological
aspects can be predicted with any degree of accuracy.

Summary
• Fusion energy is an attractive alternative to ssion energy because safety,
waste disposal, and radioactive material security are not major concerns.

• The scienti c and engineering challenges to the development of fusion

power are formidable.

• This section described how the dependence of binding energy on nucleon

number for light nuclei allowed for the extraction of energy during a fusion
process.

• From a practical standpoint, the di culty in fusing two nuclei is the need to
overcome the barrier that results from the repulsive Coulombic interaction
between the charged protons in the two nuclei.

• Nuclei must be kept together with a su ciently high density and energy for
a su ciently long period of time to make the probability of fusion high
enough to produce useable energy.

Summary
• Two approaches have been taken to meeting these
requirements: magnetic con nement fusion and inertial
con nement (or laser) fusion.

• In a magnetic con nement reactor, ionized gas atoms and their

electrons form a plasma, which is con ned in a magnetic eld.

• In an inertial con nement reactor, pellets of fusion fuel are

heated and compressed to high density by bombardment with
intense lasers.

• The conditions necessary for achieving a fusion reaction are

described by the Lawson criterion in terms of the particle
density and con nement time.
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 Summary
• This section discussed the various possible fusion reactions that can
produce useable energy.

• Deuterium-deuterium fusion is the most desirable because it makes use

of deuterium nuclei, which are a natural component of all hydrogen.

• The supply of deuterium in the water of the world’s oceans would

provide a virtually endless supply of fusion fuel.

• Unfortunately, deuterium-deuterium fusion is very di cult to achieve,

and current experimental investigations of fusion power are
concentrating on deuterium-tritium fusion.

• Deuterium-tritium fusion requires the production of tritium from lithium in

order to fuel the reactor.

Summary
• The world’s supplies of lithium are limited, and the
longevity of d-t fusion as an energy source is likely less
than that for uranium ssion if fuel is reprocessed or ssile
material is bred or if thorium is used as a ssion fuel.

• Much progress has been made in recent years toward

achieving a sustainable fusion reaction, although much
work is still needed to make the process viable from an
energetic and economic standpoint.

• A possible design of a fusion power reactor based on a

heat engine and generator was presented.
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