ITER nuclear fusion reactor to be built in Southern France
The Six Parties of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) consortium have reached a decision in their negotiations, specifying the location of the world’s first energy-producing fusion reactor in Cadarache, in Southern France. The €10 billion project will generate multiple research opportunities for the Plasma Physics Research Centre at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL).
ITER's future location in Cadarache will be doubly beneficial to EPFL. In its role as a National Centre of Competence, The Plasma Physics Research Centre (CRPP) is fully integrated with the nuclear fusion research programs within the Euratom-Swiss Confederation framework. CRPP will thus be called upon to participate in various specialized, high technology facets of the reactor’s construction.
This level of participation will confirm and solidify CRPP’s reputation in the plasma physics community. Minh Quang Tran, director of the Centre, also holds a position as president of the European Fusion Development Agreement, the organization that coordinates all fusion-related technology as well as all work involving the JET (Joint European Torus), a intermediate-generation tokamak-type experimental fusion reactor.
“The synergies that will develop in this research environment will reinforce the links between EPFL and the main European centers of fusion research excellence, in their common quest for a new and promising means of safe, efficient and sufficient energy production,” notes Tran. As a key player in this international involvement, Switzerland also stands to benefit in a larger sense from industrial spin-offs that will result from the project.
An enormous energy potential
Nuclear fusion represents a practically unlimited source of energy. Under extremely high pressures and temperatures, light atoms – isotopes of hydrogen, such as deuterium and tritium—come together, or fuse, producing enormous amounts of energy. A prime example is the Sun, where huge gravitational pressure allows fusion to take place at about 10 million degrees Celsius. At the gravitational pressure we experience on Earth, higher temperatures are required to generate fusion, and to date only tokamak-type reactors are capable of reaching the 100 million-degree-Celsius threshold where energy can be produced.
In the last several years, considerable technological progress has been made in fusion research, leading to high expectations for the ITER. With this reactor, studies done at the CRPP and elsewhere on the feasibility and functioning of a nuclear fusion-based centre of electricity production can be brought to a successful conclusion, and the groundwork can be laid for the first prototype commercial fusion reactor. Up to this point energy-producing nuclear reactors have used fission, not fusion, to generate energy. Fusion reactors have important advantages; power stations will be inherently safe because “meltdown” or “runaway reactions” cannot occur, and these reactors do not generate long-lasting radioactive waste. Fusion reactors don’t emit greenhouse gases, and the basic fuels – hydrogen and lithium – are abundant and available everywhere.
The energy production of ITER will be unprecedented: a single gram of deuterium fused with one and a half grams of tritium will produce ten million times as much energy as a gram of oil. The successful launch of these new technologies in the ITER reactor will set the stage for the successful use of fusion as an inexhaustible and sustainable energy source.
Mfumo wa ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) unaofanyika katika mji wa Cadarache, kusini mwa Ufaransa, umewekwa rasmi. Mradi huo wa € 10 bilioni utazalisha fursa nyingi za utafiti kwa Kituo cha Utafiti wa Fizikia ya Plasma katika Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). Mahali pa baadaye pa ITER huko Cadarache kitakuwa na faida mara mbili kwa EPFL. Katika jukumu lake kama Kituo cha Kitaifa cha Ujuzi, Kituo cha Utafiti wa Fizikia ya Plasma (CRPP) ni kikamilifu kuunganishwa na mipango ya utafiti wa fusion ya nyuklia ndani ya Euratom-Swiss Confederation mfumo. CRPP hivyo itakuwa kuitwa kushiriki katika mbalimbali maalumu, high-teknolojia pande ya ujenzi wa reactor ya. Kiwango hiki cha ushiriki itathibitisha na kuimarisha sifa ya CRPP katika jamii ya fizikia ya plasma. "Muhammad Qin Shi Huang, Mkurugenzi wa Kituo cha Maendeleo ya Fusion, pia ana nafasi ya Rais wa Mkataba wa Maendeleo ya Fusion ya Ulaya, shirika ambalo linaratibu teknolojia zote zinazohusiana na fusion na kazi zote zinazohusisha JET (Junior European Torus), ""kiwango cha kati cha kizazi cha tokamak"" cha mtihani wa fusion." "Synergies ambayo itaendelea katika mazingira haya ya utafiti itaimarisha viungo kati ya EPFL na vituo kuu vya Ulaya vya utafiti wa fusion, katika utafutaji wao wa pamoja wa njia mpya na ya kuahidi ya usalama, ufanisi na uzalishaji wa nishati ya kutosha, ""Tran anasema." Kama mchezaji muhimu katika ushiriki huu wa kimataifa, Uswisi pia inasimama kufaidika katika maana kubwa kutoka kwa viwanda vya viwanda ambavyo vitatokana na mradi huo. Uwezekano mkubwa wa nishati Fusion ya nyuklia inawakilisha chanzo cha nishati karibu bila kikomo. Chini ya shinikizo na halijoto ya juu sana, atomu nyepesi - isotopu za hidrojeni, kama vile deuteriamu na tritiamu - huungana, au kuunganishwa, na kutokeza kiasi kikubwa cha nishati. Jua ni mfano mzuri, ambapo shinikizo kubwa la uvutano huruhusu mchanganyiko wa nyuklia kutokea kwa joto la karibu digrii milioni 10. Kwa sababu ya hali ya joto ya juu ya dunia, hali ya joto ya juu ya joto inahitajika kwa ajili ya kutengeneza nishati ya fusion, na hadi sasa, ni mitambo ya aina ya tokamak tu inayoweza kufikia kiwango cha joto cha 100 milioni C, ambapo nishati inaweza kutengenezwa. Katika miaka ya hivi karibuni, maendeleo makubwa ya kiteknolojia yamefanywa katika utafiti wa fusion, na kusababisha matarajio makubwa kwa ITER. Kwa kutumia kiwanda hiki, utafiti uliofanywa katika CRPP na mahali pengine juu ya uwezekano na utendaji wa kituo cha uzalishaji wa umeme wa nyuklia cha fusion inaweza kufanikiwa, na msingi unaweza kuwekwa kwa ajili ya kiwanda cha kwanza cha kwanza cha kibiashara cha fusion. Kufikia wakati huu mitambo ya nyuklia inayotokeza nishati imetumia fission, si fusion, kutokeza nishati. Vituo vya fusion vina faida muhimu; vituo vya umeme vitakuwa salama kwa asili kwa sababu "kuyeyushwa" au "mageuzi ya kukimbia" hayawezi kutokea, na vifaa hivi havitokezi taka za muda mrefu za mnururisho. Vituo vya fusion havitoi gesi za chafu, na mafuta ya msingi - hidrojeni na lithiamu - ni mengi na yanapatikana kila mahali. "Kutengenezwa kwa nishati ya ITER itakuwa isiyo na kifani: gramu moja ya deuteri iliyounganishwa na gramu moja na nusu ya tritium itazalisha nishati mara milioni kumi zaidi ya gramu moja ya mafuta. """ Kufanikiwa kwa teknolojia hizi mpya katika kiwanda cha ITER kutatayarisha hatua kwa ajili ya mafanikio ya matumizi ya fusion kama chanzo cha nishati isiyo na mwisho na endelevu.