Shuting Fan CoTERMINAL MECHANICAL ENGINEERING Motivation Why I choose nuclear fusion as my topic today Intern EAST Tokamak Design Division Institute of Plasma Physics China Interested in learning the physics behind it and its potential economical and environmental value ID: 574269
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Slide1
Nuclear Fusion
Shuting Fan
Co-TERMINAL, MECHANICAL ENGINEERINGSlide2
Motivation
-Why I choose nuclear fusion as my topic today?
Intern, EAST Tokamak Design Division, Institute of Plasma Physics, China
Interested in learning the physics behind it and its potential economical and environmental value
Designed and constructed CCD camera fixtures and specified camera for the outer inspection windows
Inspected broken tiles and microwave tubes for the reaction chamber by operating the Articulate Inspection Arm (AIA) robotic arm
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EAST Tokamak for Experimental Advanced Superconducting TokamakSlide3
Basic working Principal
Nuclear fusion
is a reaction in which two (or more) atomic nuclei come close enough to form one (or more) different atomic nuclei and subatomic particles.
In practice,
under certain condition
, two isotopes of Hydrogen, deuterium H-2 and tritium H-3(Sources and resources), are fused into one Helium plus one extra neutron, generating
huge amount of energy
during the process.
Blue represents proton
Red represents neutron Slide4
Energy Production
- the potential of nuclear fusion
When comparing the mass of the product (a helium atom and a neutron) to the mass of the reactant ( a deuterium plus a tritium), you will see that the mass is
lost during the reaction. That’s the mass that converted into energy as the nuclei fused together following Einstein's famous equation
1g of pure hydrogen contains 600,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms
(value varies for H-2 and H-3 but similar)
Each reaction generates17.59 million electron volts (MeV)Slide5
Working condition
To allow fusion reaction releasing energy in an controlled manner. Three requirements must be reached:
Temperature
Physicist estimates that the sample of deuterium and tritium needs to be heated to ~ 40 million kelvin. The temperature of the core of sun is ~15 million Kelvin.
Time Deuterium and tritium must be held together long enough in a close distance to initiate the reaction. Researcher estimates that ~ 1 second is need. Containment At 40 million kelvin, everything would vaporized in gas. Thus, Researchers think about using magnetic fields to contain the plasma, as plasma has a charge. Magnetic fields in current nuclear fusion devices all have leaking problem.
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Technological challengesSlide6
Current status
-Where are we right now?
In 2013, Chinese scientists at EAST tokamak test reactor achieves a record confinement time of 30 seconds for plasma in the high-confinement mode (H-mode), thanks to improvements in heat dispersal from tokamak walls. This is an improvement of an order of magnitude with respect to state-of-the-art reactors
In 2014, US Scientists at NIF successfully generate more energy from fusion reactions than the energy absorbed by the nuclear fuel (Break even point)
The world's largest tokamak project, ITER, is scheduled to begin operation in 2020
EAST, Hefei, China
NIF,
Livemore
, USA ITER, Southern FranceFrance, China, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and USASlide7
Source of reactant
Deuterium is a minor isotope of hydrogen, but it’s still relatively abundant.
Tritium doesn’t occur naturally, but it can easily be produced by bombarding deuterium with a neutron.
The source of the reaction is theoretically unlimited
bombardingSlide8
Environmental & Public Safety
The future that nuclear fusion offers is amazingly promising.
It generates huge supplies of clean energy made from deuterium and tritium that are theoretically unlimited.
It generates no nuclear waste or pollutionThere's no risk of nuclear accidents similar to those that have occurred with fission plants
Researchers estimate we're still several decades from seeing commercial fusion plant, and it always seems decades away. It’s a race of the technology against the time.
So, before human being starting facing energy crisis, before climate change started affect regular life, can nuclear fusion really made it to success?
Fukushima: a nuclear war
without a warSlide9
Reference
" Nuclear Fusion : WNA - World Nuclear Association ".
World-nuclear.org
. N. p., 2017. Web. 2 Feb. 2017."How Nuclear Fusion Works". Explain that Stuff. N. p., 2017. Web. 2 Feb. 2017."Nuclear Fusion: The Hope For Our Energy Future ". Wiley, N. p., 2017. Web. 2 Feb. 2017.Slide10
Thank you!