1. ITER : The Next Step for Fusion Power December 8, 2005. Parliament of Australia Standing Committee on Industry and Resources Prof John O’Connor The University of Newcastle Dr Boyd Blackwell Australian National University Dr Matthew Hole Australian National University

2. The University of Sydney AUSTRALIA FLINDERS UNIVERSITY ADELAIDE  AUSTRALIA THE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF CANBERRA Australian Nuclear Science &Tec. Org. Australian Ins. of Nuclear Science & Eng. Who are the Australian ITER Forum? ● Scientists and engineers from multiple research disciplines / institutes supporting a mission orientated goal : controlled fusion as an energy source ● Institution list is growing….

3. What is fusion ? Controlled fusion : Comparison of Energy Release per reaction : Fusion (D 2 + T 3  He 4 + n ) 17,600,000 units Fission (U 235 + n  Xe 134 + Sr 100 + n) 200,000,000 units Coal(C 6 H 2 + 6.5 O 2  6 CO 2 + H 2 0) 30 units Units are electron volts Deuterium, Tritium are hydrogen isotopes. Millions of years of fuel can be extracted from water Energy gain: 450:1

4. Fusion : a safe route to nuclear power Controlled Fusion “Magnetic confinement” use of magnetic fields to confine a plasma : e.g. tokamak Fusion is NOT a chain reaction ● No meltdown ● Not useful as a weapon (magnetically confined fusion) Fusion power requires: ● High Temperature(T i )  100 Million °C ● High density(n D ) ● Long confinement time( τ E )  “Magnetic Bottle” Environmentally/politically friendly: ● Minimal greenhouse gas emissions ● No long term radioactive waste ● Abundant fuel (water)

5. Low level waste, compared to fission Present ferritic technology allows a reduction of >3,000 over 100 years 100% recycling is possible after 100 years Using future Vanadium alloy structures, fusion is 1,000,000x less radioactive after 30 years than fission. http://fi.neep.wisc.eduhttp://fi.neep.wisc.edu http://www.ofes.fusion.doe.govhttp://www.ofes.fusion.doe.gov Figure 1: Comparison of fission and fusion radioactivity after decommissioning

6. Fuels are abundant, Australia has raw materials Conservatively estimated Earth fuel reserves are : ~ 10,000 years of D-T, ~ millions of years of D-D T. J. Dolan, Fus. Res., 2000*Australian Government, Geoscience Australia, 2005. Fuels: ● Deuterium: “unlimited” – 1 litre tap water  800 litres oil ● Tritium: bred from Lithium: > 10,000 years supply Australia has 4%* of world’s resource. Advanced Materials: ● Vanadium, Tantalum, Niobium, Zirconium Australia has considerable mineral resources Opportunity for technology development/Value Added

7. Fusion power plant designs Final Report of the European Fusion Power Plant Conceptual Design Study, April 13, 2005

8. Fusion progress comparison to # CPU transistors per unit area Fusion progress exceeds Moore’s law scaling ITER Figure 2: Progress of fusion research

9. ITER : “the way” Plasma conditions 15MAIp, plasma current 6.2m, 2.0mMajor,minor radius ~10Q = power out/ power in 500MWTotal Fusion power 80  10 6 °C 73MWAuxillary heating, current drive 837 m 3 Plasma Volume 5.3 TeslaMagnetic field

10. ITER Objectives and Consortium ● ITER is a growing consortium of nations and alliances under the auspices of the IAEA. Current members include European Union, USA, China, Korea, Japan, Russia and now India (Dec. 6). ● ITER is one of the world’s largest science projects. ● Construction / 10 year operation costs : ~ AUD$10bn / $6bn ● Highest funding priority of the worlds’ largest physical sciences research body (US, Dep. Of Energy). Programmatic : demonstrate fusion energy for peaceful purposes Physics: “Grand Challenge” burning plasma science Technology : integrated operation and materials testing ● Objectives

11. Fusion development time-scales Source: Accelerated development of fusion power. I. Cook et al. 2005 Scope of Australian Government Energy White paper (2004) 200520502020 ITER today’s experiments materials testing facility (IFMIF) demonstration power-plant (DEMO) commercial power-plants R &D on alternative concepts and advanced materials 2010201520252030203520402045

12. Australian has strong expertise in fusion 1934 Sir Mark Oliphant discovers He 3+, T, and D-D reaction 1946 Toroidal confinement system research pioneers: Peter Thonemann (Australian) and Sir George Thomson (UK) 1958 Sir Mark Oliphant commences plasma physics research at ANU 1964 – now : Fusion plasma research at ANU, UNSW, Flinders University, Sydney University and ANSTO Fusion science needs to be a national research priority. To preserve and grow …

13. Benefits and Opportunities Benefits to Australia ● Energy supply and security ● Near-term economic and political benefits ● Science and technology benefits ● Training and retention of skills ● Responding to climate change ● Fostering international research links ● Scientific credibility ● Enhance Australia’s position in the IAEA Resources, Processing, Value Adding ● Large resources of rare metals (eg Li, V, Ta) for construction and fuelling ● Development of new technologies and processes.

14. Fusion is part of a low C0 2 energy solution Source: Australian Government Energy White paper Renewable energy Fusion power offers: ● base-load replacement to fossil fuels ● high energy-density supply, powering cities & industry ● power grid stability ● zero nuclear proliferation ● very low level radioactive waste ● universal accessibility of fuel Figure 3: Past and future Australian electricity sources Plus…

15. Fusion – clean, safe nuclear power for the future “bottling the sun” RECOMMENDATIONS 1 – Australia negotiates a subscription to ITER as a matter of urgency. 2 – A national or international centre be established to consolidate Australia’s research efforts in fusion related research

17. Annual Radiation Dose Source (in microsieverts) Where you live What is in you What you eat Medical and Travel Living within 10km Nuclear power plant Living within 10km of a coal fired power plant ~ 2000 microsieverts per annum

18. Fusion Relevant Minerals 158.7 kT80.7 kT (21.5%)Titanium (Ti) 3 2147 kT194 kT (4.3%)Niobium (Ni) 40.9 kT14.9 kT (40.5%)Zirconium (Zr) 3 154.2 kT53 kT (94.6 %)Tantalum (Ta) 5061 kT2586 kT (19.9 %)Vanadium (V) 257 kT170 kT (4.1%)Lithium (Li) Australian TOTAL 2 Australian EDR 1 (% world ) Mineral Fuel Structural Super- conductor Source: Australian Government, Geosciences Australia, 2005 1 Economic Demonstrated Resource 2 demonstrated plus inferred resources 3 inferred from mineral sand deposits

19. Fusion – clean, safe nuclear power for the future “bottling the sun” Fusion Base-load energy generationyes High energy density yes Power grid stability yes Nuclear non proliferation yes Radioactive waste100 years Universal accessibility of fuel yes Terrorist Potentiallow Large scale availability~50 years

20. primary energy consumption : 1903-1973: Australian Historical Records 1974-1995 Australian Bureau of Agricultural and resource Economics GDP : 1901-1963, Portrait of the Family in the Total Economy, Snooks G.D. 1974-1995 Australian Bureau of Agricultural and resource Economics (Australian Commodity Statistics) Australian standard of living tracks energy use

21. Source: Hamilton and Turton 2002 Australia is the most CO2 polluting nation on Earth. 1998 Per capita greenhouse emissions for selected industrial nations

22. 0.001 $ / kWhr internal costs: costs of constructing, fuelling, operating, and disposing of power stations external costs: “estimated” impact costs to the environment, public and worker health, Prospects for fusion electricity, I. Cook et al. Fus. Eng. & Des. 63-34, pp25-33, 2002 Fusion power will be economically competitive

23. The estimated development cost for fusion energy is essentially unchanged since 1980

24. Economic / Scientific Spin-offs MHD Coal Energy Project Aerosp ace Applica tions Hydrog en Storage Solar Thermal Collect or Material s ITER First Wall Materials Science 700 o C Steam Project

25. Fusion triple product  n D  E T i >3  10 21 m -3 keV s Conditions for fusion power ● To achieve fusion products need to be heated to 100 million degrees. ● At these extreme conditions matter exists in the plasma state ● “Lawson” ignition criterion : Fusion power > heat loss  100 million °C ● To achieve adequate output to produce ongoing energy production we need ● High Temperature(T i )  100 Million °C ● High number density(n D ) ● Long confinement time( τ E )  “ Magnetic Bottle” Reaction cross-section

26. Progress in magnetically confined fusion Joint European Torus : 1983 -

27. Fusion – bottling the sun safely… A responsible low C0 2 emission energy future requires investment in a blend of nuclear + renewable power technologies

28. Fuels and raw materials abundant Australia: 217,000T World: 4,110,000T Manufactured: Li+n→ He + T (produced inside reactor) 1 part in ~10,000 in water Abundance DeuteriumTritiumLithium ● Estimated Earth fuel reserves are : ~ millions years of D-T, ~ billion years of D-D T. J. Dolan, Fus. Res., 2000Australian Government, Geoscience Australia, 2005. Energy lifetimes