[ RadSafe ] [ RadSafe Fusion energy &Technological leadership

Tue Jul 5 15:13:14 CDT 2011

In my "mind's eye", I am trying to picture what might happen if we embarked on a 
program  to develop fusion energy similar to what was done in Manhattan Project 
for fission. I don't know how he did it, but somehow Oppenheimer led a group of 
must have been technological prima donnas in what must have involved sorting 
through and rejecting many dumb ideas to successfully choose something that 
actually worked. This effort must have involved overcoming a lot of hurt 
feelings.
I don't know whether it would again be possible without the incentive of a world 
war that we had to win or some similar motivation, but it's nice to know that it 
happened once---so perhaps it is possible that it can happen again.

Jerry Cohen

________________________________
From: Chris Hofmeyr <chris.hofmeyr at webmail.co.za>
To: The International Radiation Protection (Health Physics) Mailing List 
<radsafe at health.phys.iit.edu>
Cc: JPreisig at aol.com
Sent: Tue, July 5, 2011 11:13:44 AM
Subject: Re: [ RadSafe ] Nuclear fusion coming soon

J Preisig, Radsafers,

Just as physics makes fusion work in the stars, it conspires to make it
difficult in jars or other containers. I'm afraid it's not much use making
tritium in advance - for the same reason it needs replacement in weapons -
namely decay. Or maybe you are just a super optimist about the time frame? I
understand the real trouble starts when they get the beast to work, namely
material problems. The vessel walls will apparently suffer radiation
embrittlement in a very short time. To have your energy in the form of very
fast neutrons is more than a bit daunting, and to fire up reactions that
produce only charged particles, is so much more difficult. The 'clean' fusion
dream just does not seem realistic. A real pity.
Luckily I'm no expert. So, with a bit of serendipity - who knows?

chris.hofmeyr at webmail.co.za

On Sun, 3 Jul 2011 23:56:28 -0400 (EDT) JPreisig at aol.com wrote

> Hmmmmm,
> 
> 
> In a message dated 7/1/2011 1:08:00 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
> denferguso at state.pa.us writes:
> 
> Actually, we probably could "bank on it" if the program was  properly
> funded.
> 
> I was a rad tech at Princeton's TFTR during the D-T  test shots: they were
> getting some really interesting results while I was  there. Things like the
> record temperature, enhanced reverse shear mode  magnetic fields, six-Tesla
> shots, and some interesting self-insulating of the  plasma fields. We even
> had a purification system to recover unburned tritium  from the exhaust
> gases. And this was in the 90's, using mostly 1970's  technology. No
> superconducting magnets, etc. I often wonder how much further  we'd have gone
> with all
> the new advances on the machine. But the funding  wasn't there for the
> upgrades.
> 
> There's little industrial funding going  to fusion projects, because
> industry is tied to the current fission  technologies, which I personally
> feel are
> less safe than fusion. We had  "disruptions" (loss of magnetic containment)
> on the system. It was no big  deal, and there was no decay heat problem. I
> worked in the TMI2 cleanup and in  commercial nuclear power, so I am aware
> of nuclear safety.
> 
> Yes,  it's difficult to control essentially a miniature star in a jar...
> but I have  confidence in the folks at Princeton, UW-Madison, LANL, ITER and
> other  projects. The Manhattan Project took theory to practical in a short
> period of  time. I think we're up to it.
> 
> Lack of vision? It could cost us.  Developing new technology to become
> energy independent is a worthwhile  project. If we want the economy to
> improve,
> research will provide us the tools  to do it. If fusion is to become viable,
> we need to adequately fund tokamak,  inertial confinement, and other fusion
> test projects. Not just laugh at it.  Consider it an investment in the
> future.
> 
> My humble opinion and not  necessarily that of the management!
> 
> Dennis E. Ferguson | Radiation  Protection Program Supervisor
> PA Dept of Environmental Protection - Bureau  of Radiation  Protection
> denferguso at pa.gov
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