ITER brings fusion onto horizon

The “glorious dream” of a limitless and harmless supply of energy is “somewhat closer than most people realise” – claims an article in Time magazine. It continues: “In laboratories in the US, the Soviet Union, western Europe and Japan scientists are involved in a spirited competition to become the first to achieve one of the most important – and difficult – goals ever sought by man: the harnessing of nuclear fusion.”

The reference to the Soviet Union is, of course, the giveaway, writes Daniel Mason. The article was published 24 years ago in June 1977, the year Star Wars took the science-fiction world by storm. And in truth, notwithstanding the optimism displayed by Time, nuclear fusion as a viable source of domestic energy was then little more than science-fiction itself.

To casual observers in 2011 it may appear that not much has changed. As the BBC reported five years ago, “the running joke is that fusion has been just decades away for several decades”. But scientists have made steady progress over more than 50 years and now billions of euros are being funnelled into fusion research in a concerted effort to make that glorious dream a reality.

There are projects ongoing around the world and one of the most important is the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor – or alternatively ITER, Latin for “the way”. The ground was laid for ITER as far back as 1985 and it is a truly international collaboration. The European Union is partnered with the US, Russia, China, India, South Korea and Japan in a joint attempt to prove that producing a commercial energy supply from nuclear fusion is possible.

Nuclear fusion is the process which powers active stars like the sun. At extraordinarily high temperatures atomic nuclei join together, or fuse, and in the process release energy. This was recreated on Earth in the hydrogen bomb tests of the early 1950s but a conventional nuclear fission explosion was required to create the temperature required to instigate the fusion. Fission – where atoms are split rather than joined – is the method used in current generation nuclear power stations. It has so far proved much more difficult to control fusion reactions for civil use, and ITER is the next step on that long road – making use of all the knowledge and expertise gained on its predecessor projects over recent decades.

Up to now experiments with fusion have consumed more energy than they have produced. The ITER tokomak device being built in Cadarache, France – which will use magnetic fields to control and contain the hot plasma used in the process – will be the biggest so far. It has been designed to produce 500MW of energy for every 50MW put in. The site in France is being prepared and construction will begin next year.

It is an expensive commitment. The EU is contributing 45 per cent of the total costs and the other participants about 9 per cent each. The overall budget has risen from original estimates of around €6bn to three times that amount, taking the EU’s contribution alone up to an eye-watering €7bn. Indeed, the European Commission’s draft budget for 2012 proposes €750m of extra funding for ITER which would increase the EU’s spending on the project from €387.7m in 2011 to around €1.1bn next year.

For those involved in the project, it is money well spent. ITER director-general Osamu Motojima said in 2010: “We firmly believe that to harness fusion energy is the only way to reconcile huge conflicting demands which will confront humanity sooner or later.

“The issue at stake is how to reconcile the imperative, constantly growing demand of the majority of the world’s population to raise their standard of living with the enormous environmental hazards resulting from the present energy supply. In our opinion, the use of fusion energy is a must if we want to be serious about embarking on sustainable development for future generations.”

The raw materials used to create the fusion reaction are water and lithium – both abundant on Earth. They are the sources of the hydrogen isotopes Deuterium and Tritium which will be fused together. The reaction will take place at 150 million degrees Celsius – that is, 10 times hotter than fusion reactions in the sun’s core, necessary because of the very different gravitational forces at work.

Not only are the raw materials abundant, but they are not required in anything like the same quantities as traditional fuels. For example, 2.7 million tons of coal per year is needed for a 1,000MW power plant, while it is thought that a fusion plant will only use 250 kilos of fuel a year – half Deuterium, half Tritium.

There are no greenhouse gas emissions and the major waste product is helium. A small amount of low-level radioactive waste is produced but in the case of an emergency or breakdown the plasma in the tokomak device would cool very quickly, stopping the reaction taking place. Its proponents claim fusion is infinitely safer than nuclear fission which is causing so much consternation across Europe and the world following events in Japan.

If the ITER project is successful, then the plan is to begin work on a full-scale demonstration plant, which will be built in Japan and for the first time convert the energy created into electrical power. The DEMO project is expected around 2030-40 and if all goes well fusion could be part of our everyday mix of energy by 2060.

But public spending of this magnitude will inevitably come under intense scrutiny. Last year plans to cover a €1.3bn shortfall in the project’s budget by transferring funds from the non-nuclear part of the Seventh Framework Programme were rejected by the European Parliament. For some, the costs are simply too high. Green MEP Helga Trüpel described the decision to plough more money in as flabbergasting, adding: “The commission seems to have drawn no lessons from the current debate on nuclear power with its budget proposals.”

She continued: “With an additional €750m and €550m foreseen for the ITER nuclear fusion project for the years 2012 and 2013 respectively, it begs the question as to whether the commission has lost all touch with reality.” Meanwhile investment in what Trüpel calls intelligent and sustainable growth “pale in comparison to the funding foreseen for ITER”.

Fusion has traditionally been likened by critics to trying to “put the sun in a box” and concerns have also been raised about developing nuclear technology in a part of France susceptible to earth tremors following the crisis at Fukushima. But in April a commission spokesperson dismissed the complaint: “There is no link between fission and fusion other than a reaction of particles. The fusion chamber is entirely different and would turn itself off automatically if there were any problem.”

In the popular 1994 video game SimCity 2000, which let players build, manage and maintain an entire metropolis of their own over many virtual decades, fusion power became available for everyday use in 2050. That prediction may now seem just slightly optimistic. But the vast quantities of public money being poured into fusion research mean scientists and politicians will hope that ITER will provide that much needed breakthrough in the foreseeable future. Otherwise the main waste from fusion will not be helium but European taxpayers’ money.

Public Service Europe