Nuclear Fusion Study
ITER is located in southeast France three kilometers east of Cadarache. It is the largest research and technological development center for energy. It will be completing build processes by 2023. First-ever fusion test will be conducted in 2025, as per the plan. SPARC is the current serious competition to ITER. SPARC will be completing its build process by 2025.
ITER is a 22 billion Dollar Project. India’s contribution to ITER is about 2.2 billion dollars.
ITER has a treaty with the countries that are funding it. ITER members China, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, and the United States will share in the cost of project construction, operation, and decommissioning and share in the experimental results and any intellectual property generated by the project.
There are 2 types of fusion reactors:
- Tokamak
A donut-shaped ring that is hollow from the inside. It heats the plasma to 150,000,000 degrees Celsius, about 1000 times the temperature of the sun. To contain this plasma from melting in the reactor, it uses high-power electro magnets strong enough to lift an aircraft carrier 6 feet off the ground precisely, 13 teslas. It is about 280,000 times stronger than the earth’s magnetic field. It heats the plasma with the help of a two methods
- Inertial confinement reactor
It uses high-power lasers.
Challenges with Tokamak reactor
The tokamak device uses deuterium (1 neutron) and tritium (2 neutrons) isotopes of hydrogen. Deuterium is easy to obtain from the sea. But tritium is not easily available. It exists only as 10^-18 percent of natural hydrogen. To make tritium we need to split lithium into helium and tritium which is very expensive. It will cost around 30,000 dollars per gram of tritium.
Helium can be a substitute but research on it is not conclusive.
It will produce net power of around 500 GW in 5 to 6 minutes.
Raw material: acquisition, processing, and challenges with economic feasibility
Most of the parts of the reactor will be made with the help of the seven member countries. As well as the production cost of these parts will be taken care of by these countries. There are around 10 million parts in the reactor which will be transported from all over the world. This would incur huge costs.
ITER has a planned route or itinerary for all project parts; they all come to the French harbor of Fos-sur-Mer, west of Marseille on the Mediterranean Sea. From there, they will cross the inland sea Etang de Berre before being transported along the dedicated ITER Itinerary to the ITER site in Saint Paul-lez-Durance. 250 such convoys will be traveling at night. This is to keep minimum disturbance for the local communities.
The dimensions of the largest convoys that will travel along the ITER Itinerary are impressive: the heaviest parts will weigh approximately 800 tonnes (including the 200-tonne, 352-wheel transport vehicle); the tallest will be 10.4 meters high, the longest 33 meters, and the widest 9 meters.
Production: process, economic feasibility, and operating cost
The process is to first inject tritium into the reactor and convert it into plasma. The plasma is contained with the help of electromagnets. The plasma is further heated with the help of a machine known as the neutral beam injection in which deuterium atoms will be accelerated and shot into the plasma with high energy. With the help of pressure and heat, the plasma after fusion will produce energy for short periods like 5 to 10 minutes as it is impossible to hold plasma longer than that. The blankets will collect the energy and the heat produced will be used to heat water to make steam and turn the turbines to make more energy. Thus, the operating cost will include the electricity for powering the magnets as well as the neutral beam and around 30,000 dollars for making tritium by splitting lithium into helium and tritium.
Management of bye product and Cost Efficiency
The by-product will be a radioactive waste but it is not such a big problem, unlike nuclear fission in which the radioactive waste lasts for thousands of years. Nuclear waste produced by fusion can be done within a maximum duration of 100 years.
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The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is a large research and technological development center for energy located in southeast France, just three kilometers east of Cadarache. The center is set to be completed by 2023, with the first-ever fusion test scheduled to take place in 2025. ITER is a 22 billion dollar project, with India contributing 2.2 billion dollars to the cause. ITER is a treaty-based organization, with member countries including China, the European Union, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, and the United States, all contributing to the cost of construction, operation, and decommissioning, as well as sharing in the experimental results and any intellectual property generated by the project.
ITER uses a tokamak reactor, which is a donut-shaped ring that is hollow on the inside. The reactor heats plasma to 150,000,000 degrees Celsius, about 1000 times the temperature of the sun. It uses high-power electromagnets to contain the plasma, which are strong enough to lift an aircraft carrier 6 feet off the ground. The tokamak reactor uses deuterium and tritium isotopes of hydrogen, with deuterium being easy to obtain from the sea, but tritium is not easily available and is expensive to produce. The reactor is capable of producing a net power of around 500 GW in 5 to 6 minutes.
The parts of the reactor will be made by the member countries, with transport costs incurred as the parts will be transported from all over the world. The parts will be transported to the French harbor of Fos-sur-Mer, west of Marseille on the Mediterranean Sea, and then transported along the dedicated ITER Itinerary to the ITER site in Saint Paul-lez-Durance. The operating cost will include the electricity for powering the magnets, as well as the neutral beam, and around 30,000 dollars for making tritium.
The by-product of the reactor will be radioactive waste, but it is not considered a major problem. ITER is focused on cost efficiency, with the goal of producing more energy than it consumes.