An Assessment of the Prospects for Inertial Fusion Energy (2013) / Chapter Skim
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. Moreover, unlike nuclear fission plants, fusion power plants, if appropriately designed, would not produce large amounts of highlevel nuclear waste requiring long-term disposal.
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asked the National Research Council (NRC) to review the prospects for inertial fusion energy with the following statement of task: • Assess the prospects for generating power using inertial confinement fusion; • Identify scientific and engineering challenges, cost targets, and R&D objectives associ ated with developing an IFE demonstration plant; and • Advise the U.S.
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It will likely take much more than a year from now to gain a full understanding of the discrepancies between theory and experiment and to make needed modifications to optimize target performance.4 Box 1.1 in Chapter 1, "Recent Results from the National Ignition Facility," provides a detailed discussion of the most recent NIF results, and Appendix I provides a more technical discussion of this subject. While the committee considers the achievement of ignition as an essential prerequisite for initiating a national, coordinated, broad-based inertial fusion energy program, it does not believe that the fact that NIF did not achieve ignition by the end of the National Ignition Campaign (September 30, 2012)
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The recommendations are made in view of the current technical uncertainties and the anticipated long time frame to achieve commercialization of IFE. Potential Benefits, Recent Progress, and Current Status of Inertial Fusion Energy Conclusion: The scientific and technological progress in inertial confinement fusion has been substantial during the past decade, particularly in areas pertain ing to the achievement and understanding of high-energy-density conditions in the compressed fuel, and in exploring several of the critical technologies required for inertial fusion energy applications -- high-repetition-rate lasers and heavy-ion-beam systems, pulsed-power systems, and cryogenic target fabrication techniques.
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Factors Influencing the Commercialization of Inertial Fusion Energy Conclusion: The cost of targets has a major impact on the economics of inertial fusion energy power plants. Very large extrapolations are required from the current state of the art for fabricating targets for inertial confinement fusion research to the ability to mass-produce inexpensive targets for inertial fusion energy systems.
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does not have an energy mission and -- in the event that ignition is achieved -- the NNSA and inertial fusion energy research efforts will continue to diverge as technologies relevant to IFE (e.g., high-repetition-rate driver modules, chamber materials, and mass-producible targets) begin to receive a higher priority in the IFE program.
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Conclusion: If the KrF laser technical approach is selected for the roadmap development path, a very important element of the KrF laser inertial fusion energy research and development program would be the demonstration of a multikilojoule 5- to 10-Hz KrF laser module that meets all of the requirements for a Fusion Test Facility. (Conclusion 2-6)
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(Recommen dation 2-3) Other Critical Technologies for Inertial Fusion Energy Conclusion: Significant IFE technology research and engineering efforts are required to identify and develop solutions for critical technology issues and systems, among them targets and target systems; reaction chambers (first wall/blanket/shield)
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Chamber Technologies Conclusion: The chamber and blanket are critical elements of an inertial fusion energy power plant, providing the means to convert the energy released in fusion reactions into useful applications as well as the means to breed the tritium fuel. The choice and design of chamber technologies are strongly cou pled to the choice and design of driver and target technologies.
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(Conclusion 3-1 from the panel report) Conclusion: The nuclear weapons proliferation risks associated with fusion power plants are real, but are likely to be controllable.11 These risks fall into three categories: knowledge transfer; Special Nuclear Material (SNM)
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Furthermore, the issue of proliferation from research facilities will have to be dealt with long before proliferation from potential power plants becomes a concern. (Conclusion 3-3 from the panel report)
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