Interview with Carlo Rubbia, inventor of the accelerator-driven nuclear reactor

[bananas]

An interview last month with Carlo Rubbia, the inventor of the accelerator-driven nuclear reactor.
First, some background for those unfamiliar with him:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Rubbia

Carlo Rubbia (born on March 31, 1934 in Gorizia, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy) is an Italian particle physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1984 for work leading to the discovery of the W and Z particles at CERN.
...
Prof. Rubbia further proposed the concept of an energy amplifier, a novel and safe way of producing nuclear energy exploiting present-day accelerator technologies, which is actively being studied worldwide in order to incinerate high activity waste from accelerators, and produce energy from natural thorium and depleted uranium. The energy resources potentially deriving from these fuels will be practically unlimited and comparable to those from fusion.
...
Rubbia's research activities are presently concentrated on the problem of energy supply for the future, with particular focus on the development of new technologies for renewable energy sources. During his term as President of ENEA (1999 - 2005) he has developed a novel method for concentrating solar power at high temperatures for energy production, known as the Archimedes Project, which is presently being developed by industry for commercial use.

Some backround on accelerator-driven reactors:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_amplifier
In nuclear physics, an energy amplifier is a novel type of nuclear power reactor, a subcritical reactor, in which an energetic particle beam is used to stimulate a reaction, which in turn releases enough energy to power the particle accelerator and leave an energy profit for power generation. The concept has more recently been referred to as an accelerator-driven system (ADS).
...
The concept is credited to Carlo Rubbia, a Nobel Prize nuclear physicist and former director of Europe's CERN international nuclear physics lab.

The interview is in Italian here:

http://www.repubblica.it/2009/04/sezioni/ambiente/nucleare3/rubbia-intervista/rubbia-intervista.html

Rubbia: "L'errore nucleare
Il futuro è nel sole"

Parla il Nobel per la Fisica: "Inutile insistere su una tecnologia che crea solo problemi e ha bisogno di troppo tempo per dare risultati". La strada da percorrere? "Quella del solare termodinamico. Spagna, Germania e Usa l'hanno capito. E noi..."
di ELENA DUSI

<snip>

Here is the google translation to English:

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=it&tl=en&u=http://www.repubblica.it/2009/04/sezioni/ambiente/nucleare3/rubbia-intervista/rubbia-intervista.html&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.com&usg=ALkJrhi56IHPCpdPLqVTumkNidei4q05mQ

Rubbia: "The nuclear error
The future is in the sun "

Speak the Nobel Prize in Physics: "It is useless to insist on technology that only creates problems and needs too much time to yield results." The road ahead? "That solar thermodynamic. Spain, Germany and the U.S. have understood. And we ..."
By ELENA DUSI



ROME - Like Scylla and Charybdis, both the nuclear and fossil fuels are likely to ship on the rocks the ship of our development. To solve the energy problem, according to Carlo Rubbia, Nobel Prize, you must completely revolutionize the route. "How?" Cut the Gordian knot and starting to look into a different direction. Because on the one hand, with fossil fuels, we have environmental problems that threaten to make us great tricks. And secondly, if we look at nuclear we realize that we are facing the same problems unsolved by a quarter of a century ago. The road is quite promising the sun, which is growing at a rate of 40% every year in the world and proves that you can overcome the technical barriers that actually happened before. Obviously I am not speaking of Italy. The countries where progress is more focus: Spain, Chile, Mexico, China, India Germany. United States. "

The vein of bitterness in his voice that speaks when Carlo Rubbia of Italy is not accidental. Studies of Physics at Cern in Geneva and consultancy roles in the energy sector in Spain, Germany, at the United Nations and European Community have moved away from our country. But these days the Nobel Prize was in Rome, where he delivered crowded lecture on matter and dark energy in the exhibition "stars and Particles", staged at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni by INFN, INAF and ASI.

Scientific exhibition in one month has already raised 34 thousand visitors. Alongside that dark energy dominates the universe, there is the energy that is increasingly lacking in our planet. The Italian government has decided to take again the road of nuclear power.

What do you think?
"We know where to build the plants and how to dispose the waste? He is aware that to achieve a central need at least ten years? You realize that four or eight power plants are like a swallow in the spring and do not solve the problem because France for example, goes on with more than fifty plants, and what the French themselves are reviewing their programs on the technology of nuclear EPR, so that you prefer to refurbish old reactors rather than building new ones? If there is no answer to these questions, it becomes difficult to even discuss the nuclear Italian.

You are the father of solar power systems thermodynamics. A Priolo, near Syracuse, is the first plant in the making. This is not good news?
"Yes, but let's not forget that the technology was developed when I was driving Enea, in Priolo will be able to produce 4 megawatts of energy, while Spain has already in the works for 14 thousand megawatt plant and has proved capable of start a big solar power plant in 18 months. All the while we spend the time to suggest that nuclear reactors will need a decade of work. Of the advances in solar is moving them even the American administration, along with Latin nations American, Asian, Israel and many Arab countries. The only question now is not whether solar energy will grow, but if you win the race will be Chinese or American. "

Even for solar no shortage of problems. Just come a cloud ...
"Not with the solar thermodynamics, which is able to store energy collected during the hours of sunshine. The solution of molten salts used in place of the simple fact water can reach 600 degrees and the heat is released during the hours of darkness or clouds. Ultimately, the success dell'idroelettrico as the only true renewable source is due to the fact that a dam allows us to amass power and regulate its release. Even the thermodynamic solar plants - unlike wind turbines and panels PV - are able to solve the problem of the accumulation. "

The construction of large solar power plants in the desert has a future?
"Of course, the Germans have already begun to invest large capital in the project DESERTEC. The difficulty is that to move the turbines need lots of water. Even the nuclear power plants in Europe during the summer have problems. And in the desert country find enough water is really a problem. That's because in Spain we are developing new solar systems that work like the jet engines of aircraft: heating compressed air. The jet machines are now reliable and simple to construct. This makes them the central sun of the future, if we the political will to do so. "

© Reproduction confidential ( November 29, 2009 )

[bananas]

1. Some previous discussions on DU

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=145601&mesg_id=145913
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=128182&mesg_id=128603
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=145601&mesg_id=145914