Fusion Energy
Research and Development

Approved by the IEEE-USA Board of Directors (June 1999)

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers - United States of America (IEEE-USA) endorses research and development in fusion power aimed at deriving the knowledge base to exploit fusion as a virtually inexhaustible, environmentally attractive and economical power source for base load electrical power generation.

IEEE-USA supports fusion research and development as a component of a broad program of research and development in energy technologies, targeted at reducing environmental impacts of increasing worldwide energy use while assuring an adequate, reliable and economical supply of electrical energy. We recommend increased funding for R&D in energy technologies, generally to provide a diverse set of options for efficient end-use and acceptable electricity generation and transmission in the near- and long-terms. Our vision emphasizes energy efficiency and conservation, and a diversification of energy sources including solar and renewable energy, advanced nuclear fission technology, and fusion in order to reduce the need for burning fossil fuels.

With the energy situations in the U.S., Europe, Japan, Russia and developing nations being quite different; with some like the U.S. having large energy reserves and others projecting shortages in the next 100 years; and in light of the global nature of possible climate change, IEEE-USA believes that it is important for the U.S. to address the worldwide situation and to play a leadership role in the worldwide fusion program. The U.S. should position itself to become a supplier of attractive fusion power systems when needed. Especially important is research and development targeted at increasing the attractiveness of the fusion power system from the safety, environmental and economic perspectives.

IEEE-USA supports a fusion program that includes:

1. development of fusion science, technology, magnetic confinement innovations, and inertial fusion energy as the central themes of the domestic program and a theme of the international collaboration program;
2. study of burning plasma science, including both experiments on relevant existing domestic and international machines and participation on an international burning plasma facility;
3. development of fusion technology including enabling technologies, superconducting magnets and advanced materials, especially low activation materials;
4. advancement of plasma and fusion science and engineering in pursuit of national science and technology goals; and
5. continuation of broad areas of international cooperation in performing fusion power research but stressing the importance of having a strong and stable domestic program to maintain essential national physics and engineering capabilities and to assure international competitiveness.

The statement was developed by the Energy Policy Committee of The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers - United States of America (IEEE-USA) and represents the considered judgment of a group of U.S. IEEE members with expertise in the subject field. IEEE-USA promotes the careers and public policy interests of the 225,000 electrical, electronics and computer engineers who are U.S. members of the IEEE.

Fusion Energy Overview

In its most achievable form, fusion energy comes from the conversion of hydrogen into helium, with the release of energetic helium nuclei and neutrons. A reduction in the total mass of the reacting particles releases energy, in accord with Einstein's theory of relativity.

Due to the electrostatic repulsion of the positively-charged reacting nuclei, low energy nuclei do not get close enough to stick together (i.e.,.fuse); hence, the probability of a fusion reaction is strongly dependent on the energies of the reacting nuclei -- requiring "temperatures" in excess of roughly 100 million degrees Centigrade to have a significant population of sufficiently energetic nuclei. At such temperatures the fuel is a "plasma" in which the electrons are not bound to the positively-charged nuclei. The fusion burn of the plasma is sustained if confinement times and particle densities are adequately large (the so-called Lawson criterion requiring that their product exceed roughly 1014 seconds/cm3).

The potential advantages of fusion power include:

• universally available and virtually inexhaustible fuel;
• negligible atmospheric emissions, in contrast to the C02 and acid emission from burning fossil fuels;
• limited impacts on ecological and geophysical processes; and
• radiological hazards and proliferation risks significantly less than with nuclear fission power.

The potential disadvantages of fusion power include:

• a long development period prior to a demonstration fusion power plant;
• relatively large unit size of fusion power plants (~1000 MW with present concepts and possibly ~500 MW with more advanced concepts);
• large module size for magnetic fusion program development steps, demanding a development program that includes large and expensive facilities; both the magnetic and inertial fusion programs are exploring the possibility of smaller development steps; and
• radioactivity, albeit with significantly less long-term activity and shorter half-lives than with fission power.

The thermonuclear fusion energy program is being conducted along two parallel paths: magnetic and inertial fusion energy.

• Magnetic confinement fusion (MCF) uses strong magnetic fields to confine the reacting particles for periods of times exceeding seconds. MCF is an unclassified program benefiting from extensive international collaboration.
• Inertial confinement fusion (ICF) uses focused high-power sources (lasers and particle beams) to compress and heat small target pellets and confines the reacting mixture by its own inertia for very brief times (about a billionth of a second). Aspects of DOE's ICF program relating to nuclear weapons are classified, but much of ICF relating to inertial fusion energy was declassified by DOE in December 1993.

Highlights of Fusion Research

Controlled fusion research has made significant progress since its inception in the early 1950's. For example, the equivalent gain (ratio of fusion power out to heating power in) of magnetic confinement fusion experiments has risen from 1/1,000,000 twenty years ago to nearly unity (i.e., one) in the United States' Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor and in the Joint European Torus. In the inertial confinement fusion program, experiments in a classified program called Centurion/Halite have provided evidence that ICF in the laboratory is technically feasible.

Recent highlights of the U.S. magnetic fusion energy program include:

• the production of more than 10 million watts of fusion power in the U.S.'s Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) and Europe's Joint European Torus (JET);
• achievement of promising regimes of improved plasma confinement and stability in base program tokamaks; and
• successful completion of the Final Design Report of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), via a partnership between the governments of Japan, the Russian Federation, the European Community, and the United States.

Recent highlights of the U.S. inertial fusion energy program have been:

• improved pellet compression using innovative techniques to smooth the incident energetic compression beam;
• declassification of significant parts of the ICF program, which has led to increased openness, participation by universities and industry, and increased communication with the international ICF program participants;
• demonstration that an energy of five to 10 MegaJoules on the ICF target is adequate to achieve high gain (fusion yield many times larger than the required driver energy);
• start of construction for the inertial confinement fusion National Ignition Facility (NIF), which is targeted at fusion ignition and energy gain in the laboratory.

Fusion policy recommendations should be developed in the context of the following principles:

• The U.S. must invest in energy science and technology research and development to ensure that the U.S. industry acquires the expertise to become a major supplier of efficient end-use equipment and efficient, reliable and environmentally attractive electricity generation and transmission systems in the future.

• Consistent with the 1992 recommendations of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board's Task Force on Priorities, "every effort should be made to secure a future Energy Research budgetary profile that is more in keeping with the outstanding scientific opportunities before the nation and the traditional role of the DOE as a major source of support for fundamental science and engineering research."

• Energy policy should be based on a long-range national energy plan, and should achieve a prudent balance between international collaboration (for U.S. cost reduction) and a strong domestic program (to ensure national competence and competitiveness).

• Fusion should be developed as an element within a portfolio of long-term electrical energy generation technologies because of fusion's potential as an inexhaustible and environmentally attractive energy source.

• Due to the long-term nature of the fusion R&D program and fusion energy's significant environmental and national security advantages, stable government commitment to the long-term development of fusion power is essential to exploit the international fusion advances and to lead in strategically important areas.

• U.S. industry should be involved in appropriate roles such that U.S. industry will have the skills to compete in the international market for providing fusion reactors in the future.

• While international collaboration is needed for fusion energy and technology projects, a strong, complementary domestic program is necessary to assure the U.S.'s ability to be a strong international partner and to maintain the U.S.'s competitiveness in the design and construction of future fusion power systems.

• The national laboratories should transfer technology, but will have strong roles for the foreseeable future.

• The U.S. should assure funding sources for university-based research in both magnetic and inertial fusion energy, both to provide the intellectual stimulus, objective criticism, and innovative thinking that universities foster and to train future scientists and engineers. A recent National Research Council Research Briefing on Contemporary Problems in Plasma Science highlighted many exciting opportunities for university research, including the innovative use of fusion facilities. Many of these opportunities are not being exploited because funding sources for basic plasma sciences are extraordinarily limited.

(1) Because energy is perceived to be plentiful in the U.S. in the near-term, because development of an attractive fusion reactor will take decades, and because the market for fusion will likely arise only when the demand from the developing nations has risen significantly and when concerns about climate change are sufficient to justify demonstration of clean electric power production from non-fossil sources, the main focus of the U.S. domestic fusion program should be the development of the knowledge base for designing an environmentally and economically attractive power source. Due to the present uncertainties about the concepts, both magnetic and inertial fusion approaches should be pursued. The present barriers to the design of an attractive fusion configuration include both science and technology, so programs in fusion science, fusion technology and concept innovation are required. Both domestic and international facilities can contribute to this pursuit. Therefore, IEEE-USA makes the following statement.

(2) In the magnetic fusion program, the science and technology of burning plasmas are key elements in the design of a fusion reactor and are a major focus of the world magnetic fusion program. The science elements include the self-heating of the plasma by the fusion products, the effects of the feedback between the self-heated plasma and the transport and stability of the system, and the physics of plasmas at the scale of a reactor. Limited studies of the physics of burning plasmas can be conducted on existing machines; the Joint European Torus is the only existing facility capable of utilizing the most promising fusion fuels, deuterium and tritium; and several existing domestic and international tokamaks can study some of the physics of energetic particle confinement and stability. However, a more complete study of the physics of burning plasmas and the integration of physics and technology would demand a facility that cannot be afforded within the U.S. domestic program, thereby motivating international collaborations either on an integrated device or on a set of smaller devices focused on more restricted sets of objectives. Therefore, IEEE-USA makes the following statement.

(3) Technological barriers must be overcome before an attractive fusion reactor can be designed; this is true in both the magnetic and inertial fusion programs. In the magnetic program, superconducting magnets must be used to reduce the recirculating power; heating and current drive systems must be improved to support more precise control of the plasma profiles; low activation structural materials must be developed to reduce the level of radioactive waste; blanket systems must be developed to convert the neutron power to a more usable form; and plasma-facing materials must be improved to handle the exhaust power. In the inertial program, "drivers" such as particle beams and advanced lasers must be developed to provide repetitive compressions of the targets; plasma-facing materials and configurations must be improved to handle the exhaust power; and low activation materials would reduce the radioactive waste. Therefore, IEEE-USA makes the following statement.

(4) The tools for optimization of the "core" of a magnetic fusion plasma are based on understanding of the transport of energy and particles in plasmas from one electron volt (about 10,000 degrees Centigrade) to 20,000 electron volts (about 20,000,000 degrees Centigrade), of the stability of magnetically-contained plasmas, of interactions of such plasmas with radio waves and particle beams, and of plasma interactions with solid material walls. Inertial confinement fusion tools involve understanding of transport, stability and interactions between very high-density plasmas (up to around 1000 times solid density) and high-intensity laser beams and intense high-energy particle beams. These scientific topics are not addressed adequately in any other governmental program; hence, the magnetic and inertial fusion programs should be the "stewards" of this branch of science. Therefore, IEEE-USA makes the following statement.

(5) Success of international collaboration demands that the partners share the goal, benefit from the success of joint programs, and bring value to the collaboration. To be an effective international partner, the U.S. must support in a stable manner a strong domestic fusion science and technology program to provide strong capabilities to participate effectively in international collaborations and to enable the U.S. to be competitive. Therefore, IEEE-USA makes the following statement.

IEEE-USA supports a fusion program that includes continuation of broad areas of international cooperation in performing fusion power research but stressing the importance of having a strong and stable domestic program to maintain essential national physics and engineering capabilities and to assure international competitiveness.

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