Nuclear Energy

Every second, the sun converts 500 million

metric tons of hydrogen to helium. Due to the
process of fusion, 5 million metric tons of
excess material is converted into energy in
each second. This means that every year,
157,680,000,000,000 metric tons are
converted into energy.

1370 W/m2
1000 W/m2
Nuclear Energy
 Nuclear Fission

Neutron induced in U235

Fission is Exothermic

The sum of the masses of

the resulting nuclei is less
than the original mass (about 0.1%
less)

The “missing mass” is converted to

energy according to E=mc2
 Nuclear Fission Energy
Pros Cons

• Carbon-free electricity • Uranium is technically

non-renewable
• Small land footprint • Very high upfront costs
• Nuclear waste
• High power output
• Nuclear
radiation/Breakdown
• Reliable energy source
• Malfunction to nuclear
weapon
 Nuclear Fusion Energy

Nuclei are positively charged so they repel each other.

F F
Energy has to be input to overcome this repulsive force + +
The sun and stars derive their energy from fusion.

For the past 70 years, scientists have been working on the development of fusion
technologies to generate energy on earth.
 Nuclear Fusion Energy
Pros Cons
• Cost competitive • Difficult to achieve
• High energy density
• More
• Less Pollution research/scientist/engineers/
• Less life time radio money
active waste
• Practical energy result still
• No risk to proliferation unreachable

• No risk of breakdown
of plant
Methods for Confinement
 Two major approaches to fusion (D–T)
Magnetic confinement

Inertial confinement
 Two major approaches to fusion (D–T)
Magnetic confinement
Temperature ≈ 10 8 °C (10 keV)
nτ ≈ 10 15 atoms ·seconds / cm 3
τ ≈ 10 seconds (magnetic “bottle”)
n ≈ 10 14 atoms / cm 3 (10 –5 times the density of air)

Inertial confinement
Temperature ≈ 10 8 °C (10 keV)
nτ ≈ 10 15 Atoms ·seconds / cm 3
τ ≈ 3 × 10 –11 seconds (micro explosion, inertial “bottle”)
n ≈ 3 × 10 25 Atoms / cm 3 (12 times the density of lead!
~ 1000 times the density of liquid DT!)
Fusion energy requires
Three parameters control the fusion reaction rate.
Heating the plasma up to more than 100 million degrees
The plasma pressure (P); the reaction rate is approximately proportional to P2.
The ‘energy confinement time’ (τE) defined by
energy in plasma
τE =
power supplied to heat plasma
.
where τE measures how well the magnetic field insulates the plasma. It is obvious that the

larger τE, the more effective a fusion reactor will be as a net source of power.

A measure of plasma performance is thus given by:

nDTTi τE
density * temperature * confinement
 Plasma Conditions During ICF
• Before compression and ignition
Density: solid DT pallet at 0.225 g/cm3 and gas
Temperature: few Kelvin

• During the burn phase

Density: 300 to 1000 times solid density
300 to 1000 g/cm3 ≈ 1026 cm-3
Temperature: around 10.000.000 K or 10 keV
Pressure: around 1012 bar

• Confinement time needed: around 200 ps

Controlling Fusion using Inertia
 Phenomenon During Laser Plasma Interaction :

Plasma ablated
by ASE pedestal

Critical Surface

• Non linear phenomenon like

Self focusing
– Filamentation instability
– Plasma wave excitation
– Stimulated Raman Scattering (SRS)
– Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS)
– Harmonic Generations
Plasma ablated
by ASE pedestal

Critical Surface
 Ponderomotive Force

Dielectric constant
ε0 = 1 – ω P 2/ ω 2
Where
ωP2 = 4πN0e2/m0

•Charge separation due to ponderomotive force

•Electron density (N0) changes

•Dielectric constant becomes non-linear

 What is plasma
• Partially ionized gas, quasi-neutral
• Widely existed
– Fire, lightning, ionosphere, polar aurora
– Stars, solar wind, interplanetary (stellar, galactic) medium,
accretion disc, nebula
– Lamps, neon signs, ozone generator, fusion energy, electric
arc, laser-material interaction
• Basic properties
– Density, degree of ionization, temperature, conductivity,
quasi-neutrality
– magnetization
 Plasma vs gas
Property Gas Plasma

Conductivity Very low, insulator Very high, conductor

Species Usually one At least two, ion, electron

Distribution Usually Maxwellian Usually non-Maxwellian

Interaction Binary, short range Collective, long range

 Basic properties
• Temperature
• Quasi-neutrality
• Thermal speed
Vth = (2 KT/me)1/2
• Plasma frequency

• Plasma period
Debye shielding Debye length U→0

λD

• The scale over which mobile charge carriers (e.g. electrons)

screen out electric fields in plasmas . the Debye length is the
distance over which significant charge separation can occur.
A Debye sphere is a volume whose radius is the Debye length,
in which there is a sphere of influence, and outside of which
charges are screened.
System size and time

λd = 7430 (KT/n)1/2
Debye lengths
 Plasma parameter

• Strong coupling

• Weak coupling
 Collision frequency

• Mean-free-path
• Collisional plasma

• Collision frequency
 Magnetized plasma
• Anisotropic
• Gyroradius
• Gyrofrequency
• Magnetization parameter

• Plasma beta
Weakly coupled plasmas
Q.1 In a plasma electrons have 1 eV temperature.
Find the temperature in Kelvin.

Q.2 Compute the density of an ideal gas at 0 0 C and 1 atm pressure.

no = P0/KbT

Q3. Compute λD and ND for

(a) for a glow discharge plasma with n = 1016/m3 and KTe = 2 eV
(b) earth ionosphere with n = 1012/m3 and KTe = 0.1 eV
(c ) magnetize plasma with n = 1023/m3 and KTe = 800 eV

Q4. In laser confined fusion, the core of sample pallet of DT is

compressed to a density of 1033/m3 at a temperature of 50 M0K.
Estimate the Debye length and no of particles in Debye sphere.