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The Fairy Tale of L. J. Reinders

The Fairy Tale of Nuclear Fusion

123 L. J. Reinders Panningen, The Netherlands

ISBN 978-3-030-64343-0 ISBN 978-3-030-64344-7 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64344-7

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Switzerland AG 2021 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland When you are studying any matter or considering any philosophy, ask yourself only what are the facts and what is the truth that the facts bear out. Never let yourself be diverted either by what you think would have beneficent social effects if it were believed, but look only and solely at what are the facts. Bertrand Russell Preface

Science in this century has become a complex endeavour. As scientific knowledge expands, the goal of general public understanding of science becomes increasingly difficult to reach.1

Nuclear fusion is the process that powers the stars, including our own . As soon as these stellar processes were understood (in the early 1920s), people started dreaming about harnessing their power both for the benefit and for the destruction of mankind on Earth. In the latter, we have succeeded. We now possess bombs that can destroy the Earth and all that is on it in a matter of hours or less. The other dream of an inexhaustible clean source of energy that will save mankind from the horrors of climate change and pollution has not yet become a reality. Will it remain a fantasy or is there a fair chance that the twenty-first century will see it come true? This book will tell the story, the history and content of the global efforts to realise this dream, an effort that has been going on now for close to seven decades without a solid trustworthy result being in sight. Should we despair or is it reasonable to continue to sink billions of dollars, euro, or yen into this effort? The quest for has a long history, and its failure to live up to its early promise has apparently also diminished the interest in properly describing its science and technology for the general public. I intended my book to fill this void and describe developments in nuclear fusion from the early beginnings up to and including the latest efforts with huge international collaborations like the (JET) and the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) and individual small-scale enterprises with small and other devices. The book that I had in mind at first was supposed to be a plea for fusion, an urge to put more money into this seemingly promising venture in order to speed up the process.

1From the preface to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Series in the delightful book by Victor Weisskopf (1991).

vii viii Preface

I was optimistic and started writing this book as a proponent of fusion. As many others who had read the same news items, I was taken in by the optimistic language and the multiple breakthroughs that were reported. Being mostly ignorant of the scientific and technical details and of its history, I saw nuclear fusion as one of the most promising ways of combating climate change. The hesitantly dawning pro- spect of an age of clean and affordable energy based on nuclear fusion as the world’s primary energy source seemed a good time for writing a book, accessible to the general public, which describes its history and explains and summarises the progress made so far, without hiding any of the difficulties and problems. In the course of writing, this all changed when I discovered from reading and studying some of the scientific literature that nuclear fusion was a fantasy pursued by single-minded individuals that were apparently unable to see reason and the fundamental failings of their efforts. The media only report the successes: record temperatures and confinement times which can be brought with a blazing headline like “’s ‘artificial sun’ sets world record with 100 second steady-state high performance ”, while the failures are ignored. When you only read the articles on fusion in the general press, it looks like a succession of breakthroughs without end, while the real situation kept hidden from the public mainly consists of failures. I felt fooled and decided to backtrack and write the book with a completely different message in mind: stop the way this is being done now, take some time to reflect on the facts and what they bear out. No longer continue to waste all this money and effort, which can be spent far better. Nuclear fusion, and research into nuclear fusion, nowadays only focuses on the production of (hopefully) cheap, but in any case inexhaustible and unlimited energy without dioxide emissions, to combat climate change and whatever benefits for mankind you can further think of. The only resource needed is just plain ! At least that is the story that continues to be repeated over and over again. Even purely scientific papers often start in the introduction with some waffle about nuclear fusion and the great prospects that are in store for mankind if the process could be controlled, etc. The scientists pursuing this research are all drawn into such blabbering talk, while in their hearts and even in their minds they are not one bit interested in such goals. They don’t do science, at least I hope they don’t, with the goal of selling cheap or any other energy to society, or to advertise their activity as something that has such a mundane result. The great power of science has always been that it could be pursued for science’s sake without the promise of any ‘use’ in the short or long term. Had that been their goal in life, they would have been better advised to become oil merchants or power utility managers. Scientists do science to understand something about nature and that should be enough to obtain funding as long as their project proposals satisfy some clear standards. For instance, research in high energy , e.g. at CERN, has always been able to secure funding, even for hideously expensive accelerators, just by pointing out that it would be a great thing to find the Higgs or some other particle and get some further confirmation of the Standard Model. Nothing more was needed, and nothing more should be needed. So, also when studying nuclear fusion processes scientists hope to understand, for instance, how a plasma behaves, how the fusion processes in the Preface ix stars work and whether we can copy them here on Earth, not for the sake of getting power on the grid, but in order to understand these processes. This scientific attitude has been totally lost in today’s fusion research. It has become a completely utilitarian enterprise, an engineering problem. In principle, there is nothing wrong with this, of course, but it happened even before the sci- entific stage had been completed. The understanding of the physics behind it, especially the physics of plasmas in the extreme conditions of a nuclear fusion reactor, is minimal. Somewhere along the line it has gone fundamentally wrong. In the USA, very sensibly, nuclear fusion research was traditionally viewed as sci- entific research, at least until the early 1970s when ‘terrible’ people (with an engineering degree) took over and wanted to build a nuclear fusion reactor, a power generating device without having even an inkling how to do this. Since then this goal has been pursued with an obstinacy verging on fanaticism, resulting in ever larger designs of reactors, culminating for the time being in the ITER monster under construction in the south of France. Since that time scientists and politicians have been fooled and are now getting company of venture capitalists, as we will see in this book. New arguments are invented along the way. Was nuclear fusion first touted as a means of delivering inexhaustible, cheap energy, now it is put forward as the solution to combat climate change. Something new has to be invented soon as it is crystal clear that energy production by nuclear fusion, if ever realised at all, will come far too late to contribute to this battle. It will in any case not happen in this century. On the other hand, a lot of research has been carried out in the last 70 years or so, often beautiful research, innovative and inventive, that deserves a place among the scientific achievements of mankind. It is no mean feat to enclose an ionised gas of hundreds of millions of degrees in some complicated magnetic field configuration and keep it confined for any length of time, but to use it as a power generating device is clearly a bridge too far. The research however is worthwhile and should be continued, but with another goal. This book is intended for a general public. At any rate, no special technical or physics training is required to understand it. A general education and a prepared- ness to use one’s brains should be enough to be able to read it. Some words like , , may be unfamiliar and sound strange at first, but will be explained and should not deter the reader. Their principles are not that difficult to understand. Jargon is often introduced in science, like in many other human endeavours, to scare off the non-initiated. In the book, physics formulas are avoi- ded, apart from some of the obvious ones, like Einstein’s mass–energy equivalence relation E=mc2, and while some of the more technical issues are perhaps hard to understand, the reader should keep in mind that that is probably also true for specialists in the field, and certainly for the author. There is however no way around this. Science has become a complex endeavour, and public understanding of sci- ence is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve. I have included above a quo- tation from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation that stressed this point already 30 years ago. But science, and certainly nuclear fusion, gobbles up untold amounts of public (and nowadays also private) money, and it is imperative for the public to have at x Preface least some idea how the money they have worked for is being spent. Scientists can spread all kinds of tales that nobody can or is willing to check, as they have done for close to seventy years in the case of nuclear fusion as being the energy source, while adding all kinds of epithets like inexhaustible, too cheap to meter and such like, that would solve most of our problems in a few decades. Nobody apparently cared to check these claims or what they are based on. And, as this book will make clear, in the case of nuclear fusion they continue to do this without having much to show for after so many years. It came as a real shock to me to realise that the emperor had no clothes and that hardly anybody has stood up, e.g. in the general press, to point this out. The general public are entitled to an insight into what has been and is being done in the field of nuclear fusion and into the prospect for the carrot held out to them being edible. The literature on nuclear fusion is vast, going back to its very beginning more than seventy years ago, with quite a number of journals, like Nuclear Fusion, Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, Journal of Fusion Energy, Fusion Engineering and Design, etc., solely devoted to this kind of research. It has become even more extensive as nuclear fusion scientists, in my impression more than other physical scientists, have the tendency to publish virtually the same results multiple times. Much of the literature is very technical, indeed, and new developments make it even more so. Apart from general advertising material with catchy phrases like ‘the Sun in a bottle’, surprisingly little effort has been spent in trying to explain the concepts and the tortuous route towards the ultimate goal: providing energy for mankind. Few attempts have been made to make the material more accessible to a general public, and the ones that have been made have so far certainly failed to make nuclear fusion a familiar concept. If anything, the general public will hardly know what people are talking about when nuclear fusion is mentioned. The enterprise of power generation by nuclear fusion has undoubtedly failed to keep touch with the general public who are supposed to foot the bill and are eventually supposed to benefit from the efforts. It will be clear from the above that this book is not optimistic about the prospects for power from fusion and, if ever realised, it will certainly not be “too cheap to meter” as was a much-heard claim in the early days of the fusion effort. Electricity production from nuclear fusion will most likely be so expensive and so complex that it will never become economically viable. It will not be a commercially competitive source of energy and certainly not a clean one either. In addition, the cost of a single nuclear fusion power plant will just be enormous, so huge that few countries will be able to afford even a single such plant, if such a hideously complex beast will ever be made to work reliably. It will for sure come far too late to help combat climate change, as will be made abundantly clear in this book. There is no chance whatsoever that it will contribute to the energy mix in this century, let alone before or around 2050 as required by the Paris Climate Agreement. All the activity, especially monsters like the ITER project, will have an enormous carbon footprint, and the amount of carbon dioxide produced in the course of its construction can probably not be made good. Preface xi

After two introductory chapters, explaining the physics principles involved in nuclear fusion, the book mostly follows the historical chronology from the first attempts in the early fifties with the so-called devices in various countries via and early tokamaks to the latest international megaproject of ITER, which originally stood for International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor. Nowadays, the word thermonuclear has to be avoided, since to many the word ‘nuclear’ is as a red flag to a bull, and ITER is now just supposed to stand for the Latin worditer which means ‘way’ (in the sense of direction), i.e. the way to nuclear fusion, a way that could very well be leading us into a cul-de-sac. It will become clear that the road to the present has been bumpy, with many ups and downs, with the ups very often imagined and the downs the order of the day. This chronological overview is divided into two parts. The first of these (Part II of the book), called “Early Fusion Activity and The Rise of the Tokamak”, describes the early begin- nings of nuclear fusion until the momentous year 1968 when Russian results with their specific fusion device, called the tokamak, ushered in a new and optimistic age. After pausing and taking stock in an intermezzo (Chap.9), Part IV “High Noon” deals with the activity since 1968 until the present day and with prospects for the future. The final part, Part V, will delve into the criticism of the fusion efforts, economic and safety aspects, sustainability, applications and spin-offs. If before embarking on this book, the reader wants to get an idea of the rosy view put forward by fusion proponents, I recommend them to read “A brief history of nuclear fusion”, published in June 2020 in Nature Physics (Barbarino 2020). In the conclusion to this article, the following statement appears: “Although many chal- lenges remain ahead on the way to a fusion-powered future, the enormous scientific and technological progress achieved through consistent high-level global partner- ship as well as the increased publicly and privately funded research and develop- ment demonstrate trust in fusion as a promising option to provide a sustainable, worldwide supply of energy for centuries to come.” Its vacuity is typical for statements about nuclear fusion made by fusion proponents who doggedly refuse to see the glaring nakedness of the emperor. The statement’s emptiness is reflected in the fact that it is almost timeless, in the sense that it could have been written at any time since the 1970s. Phrases like “many challenges remain ahead” and “enormous scientific and technological progress achieved” are completely void and have been written close to a million times about fusion since the 1970s. This book will put this progress into perspective, and although a lot has indeed been accomplished, it has not brought (commercially) viable power generation by nuclear fusion any closer. On the contrary, the lack of progress has shown that such commercial power generation can only be dreamed about and that the challenges that remain ahead are probably insurmountable. I would like to rephrase the statement a little into: “In view of the almost insurmountable challenges remaining ahead on the way to a fusion-powered future and the almost total lack of scientific and technological progress achieved through erratic high-level global partnership as well as the decreased publicly funded research and development, which has now attracted the xii Preface vultures of venture capital, it is unwarranted and incomprehensible that there is still trust in fusion as a promising option to provide a sustainable, worldwide supply of energy for centuries to come”. I wish you happy reading.

Panningen, The Netherlands L. J. Reinders October 2020 Acknowledgements

I am very grateful to Prof. Van Lunteren for offering me a guest research position at Leiden University. This provided me with access to the library and other university facilities, which were indispensable for the writing of this book. I also thank Dr. Andries van Helden for carefully reading some chapters of the book. His many comments led to a number of major improvements. Special thanks go to Dr. Michael Gryaznevich, who introduced me to the world of nuclear fusion and explained many of the intricacies of tokamaks, especially spherical ones. Professor Vladimir Voitsenya, who unfortunately deceased in August 2020, provided useful information on the work with torsatrons carried out in Kharkov and on the early history of the stellarator. Finally, I want to thank the reviewers engaged by the publisher for giving their verdict on the content of the book, in particular Professor Mikhail Shifman, Dr. Leonid Zakharov and Dr. Jacques Treiner, whose comments and remarks corrected various mistakes and resulted in notable improvements to the manuscript.

xiii Contents

Part I Introductory Chapters 1 Introduction and Basic Science ...... 3 1.1 Introduction ...... 3 1.2 Some Basic ...... 8 1.3 Stellar Processes and ...... 14 1.4 Nuclear Fusion of Light Elements ...... 18 2 Plasma ...... 25 2.1 Introduction ...... 25 2.1.1 General ...... 25 2.1.2 Temperature ...... 27 2.1.3 Plasma on Earth and Elsewhere ...... 28 2.1.4 Physics of Plasmas ...... 28 2.2 Plasma in Nuclear Fusion Devices ...... 31 2.2.1 The ...... 32 2.2.2 Plasma Heating ...... 35 2.2.3 and Particle Trajectory in a ...... 37 2.2.4 ...... 39 2.2.5 Plasma Modelling ...... 39 2.3 Plasma and Disruptions ...... 44 2.3.1 Introduction ...... 44 2.3.2 Classification of Plasma Instabilities ...... 46 2.3.3 Rayleigh–Taylor ...... 48

Part II Early Fusion Activity and The Rise of the Tokamak 3 Early Years of the Fusion Effort ...... 53 3.1 How to Make a Plasma and Contain It? ...... 53 3.1.1 The Pinch Effect ...... 53

xv xvi Contents

3.2 Early British Efforts ...... 55 3.3 Developments in the US: ...... 63 3.3.1 Introduction ...... 63 3.3.2 Pinch Devices ...... 66 3.3.3 Early Stellarator ...... 69 3.3.4 Mirror Devices ...... 73 3.3.5 Other US Programmes ...... 79 3.4 Declassification ...... 84 3.5 Early Developments in the ...... 90 3.5.1 The Birth of the Tokamak ...... 90 3.5.2 The Story of Oleg Aleksandrovich Lavrentiev ...... 91 3.5.3 The Magnetic Thermonuclear Reactor ...... 93 3.5.4 Soviet Experiments from 1955–1969 ...... 97 4 The Tokamak Takes Over ...... 101 4.1 Introduction ...... 101 4.2 The Triumph of the Tokamak ...... 106 4.3 Tokamak Fundamentals ...... 109 4.3.1 Basic Design ...... 109 4.3.2 Fundamental Tokamak Parameters ...... 113 4.3.3 Bootstrap Current ...... 116 4.3.4 Evolution of the D-Shape ...... 116 4.3.5 ...... 119 4.4 The Glory Years: The 1970s and a Change of Direction .... 122 5 The Tokamak Stampede, Part 1 ...... 129 5.1 Introduction ...... 129 5.2 ...... 130 5.2.1 Princeton Symmetric Tokamak (ST) ...... 132 5.2.2 Adiabatic Toroidal Compressor (ATC) and (PLT) ...... 132 5.2.3 Oak Ridge National Laboratory ...... 134 5.2.4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) ...... 136 5.2.5 General Atomic ...... 139 5.2.6 Other Activities in the US ...... 142 5.3 The Soviet Programme ...... 143 6 The Tokamak Stampede in Europe ...... 151 6.1 Introduction ...... 151 6.2 UK ...... 153 6.3 Germany ...... 153 6.3.1 High-Confinement Mode (H-Mode) ...... 157 6.3.2 Edge-Localised Modes (ELMs) ...... 158 Contents xvii

6.4 France ...... 160 6.5 ...... 163 6.6 Other European Countries ...... 165 7 Tokamak Research in Asia and Rest of the World ...... 169 7.1 Introduction ...... 169 7.2 ...... 169 7.3 ...... 172 7.4 India ...... 174 7.5 China ...... 174 7.6 Australia ...... 179 7.7 Miscellaneous ...... 181 8 The Big Tokamaks: TFTR, JET, JT-60 ...... 183 8.1 Introduction ...... 183 8.2 Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor (TFTR) ...... 186 8.3 Breakeven ...... 189 8.4 TFTR Continued ...... 191 8.5 Joint European Torus (JET) ...... 196 8.6 JT-60 ...... 211 8.7 Conclusion ...... 216

Part III Intermezzo 9 Summary of the World’s Efforts so Far and Further Roadmap to Fusion ...... 221 9.1 Synopsis ...... 221 9.2 Roadmap to Fusion ...... 229 9.3 Summary ...... 237

Part IV High Noon 10 The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor ...... 241 10.1 Introduction ...... 241 10.2 INTOR ...... 242 10.3 The Birth (Pangs) of the ITER Project ...... 244 10.4 The First ITER Design ...... 246 10.5 The Revised ITER Design ...... 249 10.6 Details of the New ITER Design ...... 254 10.7 Site Selection and Construction ...... 263 10.8 Cost ...... 268 10.9 Conclusion ...... 272 11 Spherical Tokamaks ...... 279 11.1 Introduction ...... 279 11.2 Alleged Advantages of the ...... 281 xviii Contents

11.3 Alternative Current Drive ...... 283 11.4 The START, MAST and NSTX Spherical Tokamaks ...... 287 11.5 Overview of Other Spherical Tokamaks in the World and Their Research ...... 295 11.6 Private Companies Pursuing Spherical Tokamak Research ...... 300 11.7 Some Considerations of Power Plant Design Based on the ST Concept ...... 305 11.8 Conclusion and Prospects ...... 307 12 Inertial Confinement Fusion ...... 311 12.1 Basics ...... 311 12.2 The Lawson Criterion ...... 315 12.3 Direct and Indirect Drive ...... 315 12.4 Ignition ...... 318 12.5 Instabilities ...... 321 12.6 Fuel Capsule Design ...... 324 12.7 National Ignition Facility ...... 326 12.8 Funding of ICF in the US ...... 336 12.9 Activities in Other Countries ...... 337 12.10 Direct Drive ...... 340 12.11 Alternative Drivers and Methods ...... 343 12.12 Conclusion ...... 347 13 The Revival of Obsolete Practices: Stellarators, Magnetic Mirrors and Pinches ...... 349 13.1 Return of the Stellarator ...... 349 13.1.1 Spatial and Classical Stellarators and Torsatrons .... 351 13.1.2 Torsatrons at Kharkov (Ukraine) ...... 353 13.1.3 Heliacs ...... 354 13.1.4 (LHD) ...... 355 13.1.5 Wendelstein 7-X ...... 355 13.1.6 Other Stellarators and Hybrid Devices ...... 361 13.2 Revival of Magnetic Mirrors ...... 363 13.2.1 The ...... 364 13.2.2 Gamma-10 Experiment ...... 366 13.2.3 Other Devices ...... 367 13.2.4 Conclusion ...... 368 13.3 Revival of Research in Pinches ...... 369 14 Non-mainstream Approaches to Fusion ...... 371 14.1 Introduction ...... 371 14.2 Alternative Fuels ...... 373 Contents xix

14.3 Non-mainstream Magnetic Confinement Devices ...... 377 14.3.1 Reversed-Field Pinch (RFP) ...... 378 14.3.2 Field-Reversed Configuration (FRC) ...... 378 14.3.3 ...... 379 14.3.4 Dynomak ...... 382 14.3.5 Rotamak ...... 383 14.3.6 ...... 384 14.3.7 (DPF) ...... 386 14.4 Cusp Confinement ...... 388 14.4.1 Picket Fence ...... 390 14.4.2 Tormac ...... 391 14.5 Non-thermal ...... 392 14.6 Inertial Electrostatic Fusion ...... 392 14.6.1 ...... 393 14.6.2 Periodically Oscillating Plasma Sphere (POPS) ..... 395 14.6.3 ...... 395 14.6.4 Insulated ...... 398 14.6.5 Penning Trap ...... 398 14.7 Magneto-Inertial Fusion (MIF) ...... 398 14.7.1 (MTF) ...... 399 14.7.2 Magnetized Liner Inertial Fusion (MagLIF) ...... 400 14.7.3 Plasma Liner Experiment (PLX) ...... 402 14.8 Conclusion ...... 402 15 Privately Funded Research into Fusion ...... 405 15.1 Introduction ...... 405 15.2 Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) ...... 408 15.3 Privately Funded Non-mainstream Approaches ...... 410 15.3.1 Magnetized Target Fusion ...... 412 15.3.2 Inertial Electrostatic Fusion ...... 414 15.3.3 -Boron Fusion ...... 419 15.3.4 Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) ...... 423 15.3.5 Miscellaneous ...... 426 15.4 Conclusion ...... 429 16 Engineering and Materials Issues ...... 433 16.1 Introduction ...... 433 16.2 The International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility (IFMIF) ...... 436 16.3 The Fusion Nuclear Science Facility and Materials Plasma Exposure Experiment ...... 441 16.4 The First Wall ...... 442 16.5 The Divertor ...... 443 xx Contents

16.6 Breeding ...... 444 16.7 Disruptions ...... 446 16.8 Suppression of Large ELMs ...... 448 16.9 Superconducting Magnets ...... 450 16.10 Conclusion ...... 453 17 Post-ITER: DEMO and Fusion Power Plants ...... 455 17.1 Introduction ...... 455 17.2 Plans of the Various ITER Members ...... 456 17.3 Prospects ...... 463 17.4 Power Plant Studies ...... 464 17.4.1 ARIES Program ...... 466 17.4.2 Power Plant Studies Outside the US ...... 469 17.5 Inertial Fusion Power Plants ...... 471 17.5.1 IFE Power Plant Design in the US ...... 474 17.5.2 Z-Pinches ...... 476 17.5.3 The Lawrence Livermore LIFE Project ...... 477 17.5.4 Efforts Outside the US ...... 480 17.6 Heavy- Fusion ...... 481 17.7 Conclusion ...... 483

Part V Concluding Chapters 18 Criticism of the Fusion Enterprise ...... 487 18.1 Introduction ...... 487 18.2 Cost ...... 489 18.3 Painting Rosy Pictures ...... 491 18.4 Lawrence Lidsky ...... 495 18.5 Robert L. Hirsch ...... 497 18.6 Criticism of ITER ...... 498 18.7 Criticism of Other Fusion Endeavours ...... 505 18.8 Conclusion ...... 506 19 Economic and Sustainability Aspects of Nuclear Fusion ...... 509 19.1 General Considerations ...... 509 19.2 Is Fusion Energy Sustainable? ...... 513 19.2.1 , and Lead ...... 513 19.3 Analyses of fusion’s Potential Contribution to the Energy Mix ...... 521 19.4 Price of Electricity from Fusion ...... 524 19.5 Conclusion ...... 527 20 Safety and Environment ...... 531 20.1 Introduction ...... 531 20.2 Tritium ...... 533 Contents xxi

20.3 ...... 536 20.4 Scarcity of Materials ...... 537 20.5 Plasma Disruptions and Quenching ...... 539 20.6 Water Usage ...... 540 20.7 , Floods, Storms ...... 541 20.8 Aesthetics ...... 542 20.9 Conclusion ...... 542 21 Applications and Spin-Offs ...... 545 21.1 Introduction ...... 545 21.2 Sources ...... 547 21.3 Fusion-Fission Hybrids ...... 549 21.4 Actinide Burners ...... 554 21.5 Military Aspects ...... 554 21.6 Involvement of Industry ...... 555 21.7 Conclusion ...... 556

Summary and Final Conclusion...... 557 Glossary...... 563 Literature ...... 575 Index ...... 591 Acronyms and Abbreviations

AAAPT Asian African Association for Plasma Training AAEC Australian Atomic Energy Commission ACST Alternating Current Spherical Tokamak AEC Atomic Energy Commission AERE Atomic Energy Research Establishment A-FNS Advanced Fusion Alcator Alto Campo Toro ALICE Adiabatic Low-Energy Injection and Capture Experiment ALPHA Accelerating Low-cost Plasma Heating and Assembly ANSTO Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation ANU Australian National University APFRF Australian Plasma Fusion Research Facility ARIES Advanced Reactor Innovation and Evaluation Study ARPA-E Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy ASDEX Axially Symmetric Divertor Experiment ASIPP Institute of Plasma Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences ASN Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire (French Nuclear Safety Authority) ATC Adiabatic Toroidal Compressor ATF Advanced Toroidal Facility ATM Axisymmetric Tandem Mirror BATORM BAby TORoidal of Masoud BEAT Break-Even Axisymmetric Tandem BETHE Breakthroughs Enabling Thermonuclear-Fusion Energy BINP Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics BPX Burning Plasma Experiment CANDU Canada CBFR Reactor CCFE Centre for Fusion Energy CCT Continuous Current Tokamak CDA Conceptional Design Activities (ITER)

xxiii xxiv Acronyms and Abbreviations

CDX Current Drive Experiment CDX-U Current Drive Experiment-Upgrade CEA Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives CERN Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire CFC Carbon fibre composite CFETR China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor CFS Commonwealth Fusion Systems CHI Coaxial helicity injection CIEMAT Centro para Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas CIRCUS CIRCUlar coil Stellarator CIT Compact Ignition Tokamak CLAM Chinese Low Activation Martensitic CLEO Closed Line Orbit CNEN Comitato Nazionale per l’Energia Nucleare CNRS Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique CNT Columbia Non-neutral Torus CPD Compact Plasma wall interaction Device CREST Compact Reversed Shear Tokamak CRP Coordinated Research Project CTF Component Test Facility CTH CTR Controlled thermonuclear research CTX Compact Torus Experiment DANTE Danish Tokamak Experiment DARPA Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency DCX Direct Current Experiment DFD Direct Fusion Drive DIFFER Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research DITE Divertor Injection Tokamak Experiment DND Double Null Divertor DOE Department of Energy (US) DONES DEMO Oriented Neutron Source DPF Dense Plasma Focus DREAM Drastically Easy Maintenance Tokamak DTT Divertor Tokamak Test facility EAST Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak EBW Electron Bernstein Wave ECCD Electron current drive ECRH Electron Cyclotron Resonance Heating EDA Engineering Design Activities (ITER) EFDA European Fusion Development Agreement EFRC ENN Field-Reversed Configuration ELiTe EVEDA Lithium Test Loop ELM Edge-localised mode Acronyms and Abbreviations xxv

ENEA Energia Nucleare ed Energia Alternative (National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development, Italy) EPR European Pressurized Reactor/Evolutionary Power Reactor (third generation nuclear fission reactor) ERIC European Research Infrastructure Consortium ESNIT Energy Selective Neutron Irradiation Test ESS European Source ETE Experimento Tokamak Esférico ETF Engineering Test Facility ETR Engineering Test Reactor Euratom European Atomic Energy Community Extrap External Ring Trap FDF Fusion Development Facility FDS Fusion design study FED Fusion Engineering Device FER Fusion Energy Research (Facility) FESS Fusion Energy System Studies FFHR Force Free Helical Reactor FIRE Research Experiment FIREX Fast Ignition Realization EXperiment FMIT Fusion Materials Irradiation Test FNSF Fusion Nuclear Science Facility FRC Field-reversed configuration FRCHX Field-Reversed Compression and Heating Experiment FRX-L Field-Reversed eXperiment-Liner FT Frascati Tokamak FTU FTWR Fusion transmutation of waste reactor GDMT Gas Dynamic Multiple-Mirror Trap GDT Gas Dynamic Trap GLAST GLAss Spherical Tokamak GSI Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung HBCCO barium calcium copper oxide HBT-EP High Tokamak HCCB -cooled ceramic breeder HCLL Helium-cooled lithium lead HED-LP High energy laboratory plasma HELIAS Helical-Axis Advanced Stellarator HFTM High-Flux Test Module HHFW High-harmonic fast wave HHR Horne Hybrid Reactor HIBALL Heavy Ion Beams and Lead Lithium HIBLIC Heavy Ion Beam and Lithium Curtain HIDIF Heavy Ion Driven Ignition Facility xxvi Acronyms and Abbreviations

HIDRA Hybrid Illinois Device for Research and Applications HiPER High Power Energy Research HIPGD High-intensity plasma gun device HIST Helicity Injected Spherical Torus HIT Helicity Injected Torus HIT-SI Helicity Injected Torus with Steady Inductance HSE Heidelberg Spheromak Experiment HSR Helical Stellarator Reactor HSX Helically Symmetric Experiment HTS High-temperature superconductor IAEA International Atomic Energy Agency IBW Ion Bernstein Wave ICDMP International Centre for Dense Magnetised Plasmas ICF Inertial confinement fusion ICRF Ion Cyclotron Radio Frequency ICRH Ion Cyclotron Resonance Heating IDCD Imposed-Dynamo Current Drive IFERC International Fusion Energy Research Centre IFMIF International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility IFRC International Fusion Research Council IFSMTF International Fusion Superconducting Magnet Test Facility INFUSE Innovation Network for Fusion Energy INTOR International Tokamak Reactor IPA Inductive Plasmoid Accelerator IPCR Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (Japan) IPP Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics IRFCM Institut de Recherche sur la Fusion par confinement Magnétique ISTTOK Instituto Superior Técnico TOKamak ISX Impurity Study Experiment ITER International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor ITER-FEAT ITER Fusion Energy Advanced Tokamak IVTAN Institute of High Temperatures of the Academy of Sciences JAEA Japan Atomic Energy Agency JAERI Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute JET Joint European Torus JFT Jaeri Fusion Torus KAIST Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology KBM Kinetic ballooning mode KfA Kernforschungsanlage KSTAR Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research KTM Kazakh Tokamak for Material studies KTX Keda Torus eXperiment LAMEX Large Axisymmetric Mirror Experiment LANL Los Alamos National Laboratory LATE Low Aspect Ratio Torus Experiment Acronyms and Abbreviations xxvii

LBCO Lanthanum barium copper oxide LBNL Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory LCE Lithium carbonate equivalent LCFS Last closed flux surface LCOE Levelized cost of energy or Levelized cost of electricity LDX Levitated Dipole Experiment LGI Laboratorio Gas Ionizzati LH Lower Hybrid LHCD Lower hybrid current drive LHD Large Helical Device LHI Local helicity injection LHRF Lower Hybrid Range of Frequencies LIFE Laser Inertial Fusion Energy LIFT Laser Inertial Fusion Test LIPAc Linear IFMIF Prototype Accelerator LLCB Lithium-lead ceramic breeder LLE Laboratory for Laser Energetic LLNL Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory LMF Large Mirror Facility LOCA Loss of coolant accidents LOFA Loss of coolant flow accidents LOVA Loss of accidents LPP Lawrenceville Plasma Physics LTD Linear Driver LTS Low-temperature superconductor LTX Lithium Tokamak Experiment LWR Light-water reactor MAFIN MAgnetic Field Intensification MagLIF Magnetised liner inertial fusion MAGPIE Magnetized Plasma Interaction Experiment MARBLE Multiple ambipolar recirculating beam line experiment MAST Mega Ampere Spherical Tokamak MCF Magnetic confinement fusion MEDUSA Madison EDUcational Small Aspect ratio MFTF Mirror Fusion Test Facility MGI Massive gas injection MHD MIF Magneto-inertial fusion MIFTI Magneto-Inertial Fusion Technologies MIIFED Monaco ITER International Fusion Energy Days MIRAPI MInimum RAdius Pinch MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIX Multipole ion-beam experiment MPEX Materials Plasma Exposure eXperiment MRX Experiment xxviii Acronyms and Abbreviations

MST MST Medium Sized Tokamak MTF Magnetized target fusion MTM Micro-tearing modes MTR Magnetic thermonuclear reactor MTR Materials test reactor NBI Neutral Beam Injection NCSX National Compact Stellarator Experiment NET Next European Torus NFRI National Fusion Research Institute (Korea) NFTF Nuclear Fusion Test Facility NIFS National Institute for Fusion Science (Japan) NSST Next Step Spherical Torus NSTX National Spherical Torus Experiment NTFP National Tokamak Fusion Programme (Pakistan) NTM Neoclassical tearing mode NUCTE Nihon-University Compact Torus Experiment OH coils Ohmic heating coils PAEC Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission PALS Prague Asterix Laser System PBFA Particle Beam Fusion Accelerator PBX Princeton Beta Experiment PBX-M Princeton Beta Experiment Modification PDX Poloidal Divertor Experiment PF coils Poloidal field coils PFC Plasma facing component PFPP Prototype Fusion Power Plant PFRC Princeton Field-Reversed Configuration PFX Penning fusion experiment PHEV Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle PHP Pilot Hybrid Plant PIC method Particle in cell method PIE Post-Irradiation Examination PINI Positive Ion Neutral Injector PKA Primary knock-on atom PLT Princeton Large Torus PLX Plasma Liner Experiment POPS Periodically oscillating plasma sphere PPCS Power Plant Conceptual Studies PPPL Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory PSFC Plasma Science and Fusion Center (MIT) QHS Quasi-Helically Symmetric QUEST Q-shu University Experiment with steady-state Spherical Tokamak RAFM Reduced activation ferritic/martensitic ReBCO Rare-earth barium copper oxide Acronyms and Abbreviations xxix

RELAX REversed field pinch of Low Aspect ratio eXperiment RF Radio-Frequency RFP RFX Reversed Field Experiment RIKEN Kokuritsu Kenkyū Kaihatsu Hōjin Rikagaku Kenkyūsho (National Institute of Physical and Chemical Research) RMP Resonant magnetic perturbation RTP Rijnhuizen Tokamak Project SCR Stellarator of Costa Rica SEAFP Safety and Environmental Assessment of Fusion Power SHPD Sustained High Power Density SIFFER SIno-French Fusion Energy Center SINP Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics SMARTOR Small Aspect Ratio Torus SMBI Supersonic molecular beam injection SOL Scrape-Off Layer SPHEX Spheromak Experiment SPI Shattered Pellet Injector SSPX Sustained Spheromak Physics Experiment SST Steady-state Superconducting Tokamak SSX Swarthmore Spheromak Experiment ST Spherical tokamak ST Symmetric Tokamak (first Princeton tokamak) STAC Science and Technology Advisory Committee (ITER) STAR Small Toroidal Atomic Reactor START Small Tight Aspect Ratio Tokamak STEP Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production STPC-EX Spherical tokamak with plasma centerpost experiment (Turkey) SUNIST Sino UNIted Spherical Tokamak SURMAC Surface Magnetic Confinement SXD Super-X divertor TAERF Texas Atomic Energy Research Foundation TBCCO Thallium barium calcium copper oxide TBM Test Blanket Module TBR Tritium-breeding ratio TBS Test Blanket System TCV Tokamak à Configuration Variable TdeV Tokamak de Varennes TE TETR Tokamak Engineering Test Reactor TF coils Toroidal field coils TFCX Toroidal Fusion Core Experiment TFR Tokamak de Fontenay-aux- Roses TFTR Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor TIBER Tokamak Ignition/Burn Experimental Reactor xxx Acronyms and Abbreviations

TJ Tokamak de la Junta de Energía Nuclear TM Tokamak Malyj (small tokamak) TMP Tor s magnitnym polem (torus with magnetic field) TMX TORMAC Toroidal Magnetic Cusp TORTUR(E) TORoidal TURbulence Experiment TRINITI Troitsk Institute for Innovation and Fusion Research TST Tokyo Spherical Tokamak TTF Frascati Turbulent Tokamak TWR Travelling wave reactor UKAEA Atomic Energy Authority ULART Ultra-Low Aspect Ratio Tokamak URANIA Unified Reduced Non-Inductive Assessment UTST University of Tokyo Spherical Tokamak VASIMR Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket VECTOR Very Compact Tokamak Reactor VEST Versatile Experiment Spherical Torus (Korea) WAM Wisconsin Axisymmetric Mirror WEGA Wendelstein Experiment in Grenoble for the Application of Radio-frequency Heating/Wendelstein Experiment in Greifswald für die Ausbildung WEST (Wolfram) Environment in Steady-state Tokamak WHAM Wisconsin HTS Axisymmetric Mirror YBCO Yttrium barium copper oxide ZETA Zero Energy Thermonuclear Assembly

Units and Related Quantities appm Atomic parts per million dpa Displacements per atom dpy Displacements per year eV (1.6 x 10−19 J) fm Femtometre (10−15 m) gigawatt 109 (1000 million) W keV Kiloelectronvolt MA Megaamperes MeV Mega-electronvolt (1 million electronvolt) MW Megawatt (1 million W; 106 J/s) MWe Megawatt electric petawatt 1015 W tesla Unit of magnetic field strength equal to 10,000 gauss