The Race to Fusion power - what, why and who and how

Fusion PowerWhat?

Why?How?

Oliver Snow PMP BEng

Fusion

Sources of Elements

http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/N/nucleosynthesis.html

Relative Abundance of Elements

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucleosynthesis

7 Billion People

image courtesy of chrisroll FreeDigitalPhotos.net

and counting...

Burning Up• Fossil Fuels are largest source of energy

• Average coal-fired plant burns 10,000 tonnes per day

• over 7 billion tonnes of coal every year world wide

• plus about 1 Cubic Mile of Oil per Year

= Lots of air pollutionhttp://www.iea.org/aboutus/faqs/coal/http://www.theoildrum.com/node/2186

So Whathappens IF...... we stay on this track?

Over 1,000 new coal-fired power plants planned

Acceptable Future?

"If the average energy consumption per person

doubles, this country will be choked to death by polluted air"

http://nextbigfuture.com/2014/03/china-targets-new-molten-salt-thorium.html

In the US, the median

person pays $1 in 6 for

energy

$9,000/year, $22 a day

Worldwide:

$1 a day for energy

on $3 a day

income

Fission – an Alternative?

•Cost of Fukushima Daichi disaster - $300bn and counting…

What IF...we change track?

Renewables?• Won‘t scale fast enough

• Cannot match Coal / Oil for cost

• Not suitable for baseload power

• Energy storage still in early stages

„Conventional“ Fusion

D + T -> He + Neutr

HEAT

http://iter.rma.ac.be/en/Documents/Pictures/

In the Race for D-T Fusion

13th Feb 2014

„…$5 billion National Ignition Facility, where scientists recently got a tiny bit closer to their goal of creating a controlled fusion reaction…”

Still just a big hole in the ground...

Magnetised Target Fusion

General Fusion (MTF)

• Targeting 2018 for Net Gain

High-β (beta) Fusion Reactor

„pB11“ Fusion:

eutronic“

The Race for Aneutronic Fusion

• Lawrenceville Plasma Physics DPF (2015 ?)

• Polywell (US Navy, Secret) IEC (201x ???)

• Tri Alpha Energy Field Reversed(20??)

Field Reversed Configuration (3α)

http://www.alternative-energy-action-now.com/tri-alpha-energy.html

Polywell IEC

http://thepolywellblog.blogspot.com.au/2012_07_01_archive.html

Lawrenceville Plasma Physics Dense Plasma Focus

Goal product: 5 MW Focus Fusion generator

At approx $1M / unit

Lower projected cost than any other energy tech

$60/kW or 0.2 cents/kWh

Focus Fusion Timeline

2013-2014: Scientific demo

2017-2018: Commercial prototype

2019: Mass manufacture

Independent Review Assessment

“a much higher

level of investment is

warranted“

More Information

http://www.lawrencevilleplasmaphysics.com

http://focusfusion.org

http://generalfusion.com

http://www.industrytap.com/can-fusion-energy-generate-unlimited-clean-energy-by-2017/2894

http://www.alternative-energy-action-now.com/tri-alpha-energy.html

http://thepolywellblog.blogspot.com.au/

Thank You

Aneutronic Fusion Comparison

Log

Tem

per

atu

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(eV

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Log (Density x Confinement Time) (sec/cc)