Hybrid fusion: the third nuclear option

[n2doc]

04 March 2010 by Julian Hunt and Graham O'Connor

THE long-anticipated nuclear renaissance has arrived. In his State of the Union address last month, President Barack Obama announced plans for the US to build a new generation of nuclear power plants, and his budget for 2011 proposes large funding increases for the industry.

A return to nuclear power is attractive right now for many reasons. It promises to help cut carbon emissions and reduce imports of fossil fuel. What's more, unlike renewables, it can ensure a stable baseload electricity supply whatever the weather.

However, nuclear energy also creates problems of its own, not least the risk of Chernobyl-style accidents and the production of radioactive waste that takes tens of thousands of years to decay. One thing Obama did not spell out is how the US will deal with a new generation of waste now that it has abandoned plans for a storage facility at Yucca mountain.

There is a way of returning to nuclear while overcoming all these concerns: hybrid nuclear fusion. The concept has been around for decades, and has been discussed in the technical literature and at the International Atomic Energy Agency. But it has not yet been explained to governments, industry, researchers and the public.

Hybrid nuclear fusion combines the two forms of nuclear power, fission and fusion, in a single reactor. This has several advantages over fission alone: it minimises the environmental impact, reduces risks, enlarges reserves of nuclear fuel and is more flexible to operate.

more:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527505.900-hybrid-fusion-the-third-nuclear-option.html

[OKIsItJustMe]

1. The folks at NIF have proposed burning nuclear waste in a fusion reactor

https://lasers.llnl.gov/about/missions/energy_for_the_future/life/

LIFE: Clean Energy from Nuclear Waste

LIFE, an acronym for Laser Inertial Fusion Engine, is an advanced energy concept under development at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). Based on physics and technology developed for the National Ignition Facility (NIF), LIFE has the potential to meet future worldwide energy needs in a safe, sustainable manner without carbon dioxide emissions.

By burning nuclear waste for its fuel, LIFE may have the added benefit of reducing the planet's stockpile of spent nuclear fuel and other materials that lend themselves to nuclear proliferation.

NIF, a project of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s National Nuclear Security Administration, is the world's largest and highest-energy laser. Certified as complete by DOE in March 2009, NIF is designed to achieve thermonuclear fusion ignition and burn in the laboratory using inertial confinement fusion (ICF) (see https://lasers.llnl.gov/programs/nic/icf/index.php">How to Make a Star). As such, NIF is the culmination of nearly 60 years of research into controlled fusion – capturing the energy of the sun and stars to provide clean, limitless energy on Earth.

Ignition experiments designed to accomplish NIF's goal will begin in 2010, and successful demonstration of ignition and net energy gain on NIF will be a transforming event that is likely to focus the world's attention on the possibility of ICF as a potential long-term energy option.

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