Thermonuclear way out of crisis

• What is nuclear fusion?

In a fusion reactor, energy is produced when light atoms — hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium — fuse to form a heavier atom. Nuclear fusion taps energy from reactions like those that heat the sun. Nuclear fission, on the contrary, produces energy by splitting heavier atoms such as uranium or plutonium.

• Why do we need such a project?

According to the ITER consortium, fusion power offers the potential of “environmentally benign, widely applicable and essentially inexhaustible” electricity. It has all the properties needed to meet the world’s growing energy needs while reducing greenhouse gas emission As French President Jacques Chirac said, “if nothing changes, humanity will have devoured in 200 years the basic fossil fuels accumulated during hundreds of millions of years, triggering a climatic earthquake.” In other words, it is an extremely promising potential source for environmentally friendly energy.

• How green and safe is fusion power?

If fusion ever becomes commercially viable, greenhouse gas emission from electric power generation can be completely eliminated. In fact, it is said that one kg of fusion fuel will produce the same amount of energy as 10 million kg of fossil fuel. The radioactive waste produced by a fusion reactor is hundreds of times less than that of fission reactors. Also, fusion reactors are safer than nuclear power plants that are in operation today. Experts say that it will be impossible for fusion reactors to undergo large-scale runaway chain reaction leading to nuclear accidents.

• What are the challenges?

They are many. To generate power through nuclear fusion, it is necessary to heat a gas to temperatures exceeding 100 million Celsius — many times hotter than the core of the sun. This would require a large quantum of energy. The greatest challenge in front of ITER is to produce more power than it consumes in a controlled environment. The project should not only demonstrate that the fusion reactor it is developing will produce energy which is many times what it consumes but also test key technologies/ processes for designing and developing future fusion power plants. French Nobel laureate in physics Pierre Gilles de Gennes put the technological challenges very succinctly. He said: “We say that we will put the sun into a box. The idea is pretty. The problem is we don’t know how to make the box.”

• What do the sceptics say?

Greenpeace says pursuing nuclear fusion and the ITER project is “madness”. It has all the problems of nuclear power including nuclear waste and risks of accidents. Environmental groups call the project a huge waste of public money. They say that with that sort of money, 10,000 MW of off-shore wind farms can be set up to deliver electricity to as much as 7.5 million homes in Europe.

• Where is the project located?

The project will be located in France at Cadarache, 60 km inland from Marseille. This is where France’s nuclear research centre is located. The decision on where to locate the project caused quite a bit of heartburn with Japan wanting to host it. It finally gave in in favour of France which operates over 58 nuclear reactors.

• What is the duration of the project?

It is a 30-year project. About 10 years will go towards constructing the reactor and 20 years will be for getting it operational.

• So, $ 12.8 billion and 30 years later, what will the project deliver?

The project would have produced the first sustained fusion reaction and established a viable process to produce fusion power. It would have also paved the way for building the first prototype of a commercial power station based on fusion process. In short, ITER will take the important step to making energy from nuclear fusion a reality.

The writer is editor (south), ‘The Financial Express’