Potential benefits of inertial fusion energy justify continued R&D

Potential benefits of inertial fusion energy justify continued R&D; nationally coordinated program should wait until ignition is achieved

2013-02-20

(Press-News.org) WASHINGTON -- The potential benefits of successful development of an inertial confinement fusion-based energy technology justify investment in fusion energy research and development as part of the long-term U.S. energy R&D portfolio, says a new report from the National Research Council. Although ignition of the fusion fuel has not yet been achieved, scientific and technological progress in inertial confinement fusion over the past decade has been substantial. Developing inertial fusion energy would require establishment of a national, coordinated, broad-based program, but achievement of ignition is a prerequisite. "The realization of inertial fusion energy would be a tremendous achievement capable of satisfying the world's ever-growing need for power without major environmental consequences," said Ronald Davidson, professor of astrophysical sciences at Princeton University's Plasma Physics Laboratory and co-chair of the committee that wrote the report. "These possibilities form an extremely compelling rationale to continue R&D efforts toward this goal." Inertial fusion energy technology (IFE) would provide an essentially carbon-free energy source with a practically unlimited supply of fuel. IFE relies on a process in which a fuel pellet the size of a pinhead is compressed by an external energy source, raising the temperature and density enough that the nuclei of the some of the fuel atoms fuse together, releasing nuclear energy. The aim is ignition, in which the fusion energy produced by the initial compression causes the remaining fuel to undergo fusion. "The fuel used in the fusion process is lithium and deuterium; deuterium is derived from water and therefore virtually unlimited," explained Gerald Kulcinski, associate dean for research and director of the Fusion Technical Institute at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who served as co-chair of the report committee. "And unlike nuclear fission plants, it would not produce large amounts of high-level nuclear waste requiring long-term disposal. The potential is for a sustainable energy source that could power the Earth for millions of years." U.S. research on inertial confinement fusion has been supported by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) of the U.S. Department of Energy. NNSA's objective is nuclear weapons stockpile stewardship, but much of the R&D is also applicable to IFE development. There are several external energy source or "driver" technologies under development: lasers, particle beams, and pulsed magnetic fields. NNSA's National Ignition Facility, located at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, recently completed a National Ignition Campaign aimed at achieving ignition. While much was learned in the process, ignition was not attained. In view of this result, the committee concluded that a range of driver technologies should continue to be pursued, rather than choosing a single technology at this time. ### The study was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration. The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council make up the National Academies. They are private, independent nonprofit institutions that provide science, technology, and health policy advice under a congressional charter granted to NAS in 1863. The Research Council is the principal operating agency of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. For more information, visit http://national-academies.org. A committee roster follows. Contacts: Lorin Hancock, Media Relations Officer
Shaquanna Shields, Media Relations Assistant
Office of News and Public Information
202-334-2138; e-mail news@nas.edu Additional resources: Report in Brief Companion Report Pre-publication copies of An Assessment of the Prospects for Inertial Fusion Energy are available from the National Academies Press on the Internet at http://www.nap.edu or by calling tel. 202-334-3313 or 1-800-624-6242. Reporters may obtain a copy from the Office of News and Public Information (contacts listed above). NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL Division on Engineering and Physical Sciences
Board on Energy and Environmental Systems
Board on Physics and Astronomy
Committee on the Prospects for Inertial Confinement Fusion Energy Systems Ronald C. Davidson (co-chair)
Professor of Astrophysical Sciences, and
Emeritus Senior Astrophysicist
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
Princeton University
Princeton, N.J. Gerald L. Kulcinski1 (co-chair)
Associate Dean for Research;
Grainger Professor of Nuclear Engineering; and
Director
Fusion Technology Institute
University of Wisconsin
Madison Charles Baker
Independent Consultant
Albuquerque, N.M. Roger Bangerter
Head of Fusion Energy Research
E.O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (retired)
Oregon City, Ore. Riccardo Betti
Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Physics, and Astronomy, and
Co-Director
Fusion Science Center
University of Rochester
Rochester, N.Y. Jan Beyea
Chief Scientist
Consulting in the Public Interest
Lambertville, N.J.
Robert L. Byer1,2
William R. Kenan Jr. Professor
Department of Applied Physics, and
Co-Director
Photonics Research Center
Stanford University
Stanford, Calif. Franklin Chang Diaz
President
Ad Astra Rocket Co.
Webster, Texas Steven C. Cowley
CEO
United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority;
Head
EURATOM/CCFE Fusion Association; and
Professor in Plasma Physics
Imperial College
London Richard L. Garwin1,2,3
IBM Fellow Emeritus
IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center
Yorktown Heights, N.Y. David Hammer
Carlton Ward Professor of Nuclear Energy Engineering
Cornell University
Ithaca, N.Y. Jospeh S. Hezir
Managing Partner
EOP Group Inc.
Washington, D.C. Kathryn McCarthy
Director
Nuclear Science and Engineering
Idaho National Laboratory
Idaho Falls Lawrence T. Papay1
CEO and Principal
PQR LLC
La Jolla, Calif. Ken Schultz
Project Manager
General Atomics (retired)
Leucadia, Calif. Andrew M. Sessler 2
Director Emeritus and Distinguished Emeritus Scientist
E.O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Berkeley, Calif. John Sheffield
Senior Fellow
University of Tennessee
Knoxville Thomas Anthony Tombrello Jr.
William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Physics
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena Dennis G. Whyte
Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge Jonathan S. Wurtele
Professor
Department of Physics
University of California
Berkeley Rosa Yang
Vice President, Innovation
Electric Power Research Institute Inc.
Palo Alto, Calif. STAFF David Lang
Study Director 1 Member, National Academy of Engineering 2 Member, National Academy of Sciences 3 Member, Institute of Medicine END

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Molecules assemble in water, hint at origins of life

2013-02-20

The base pairs that hold together two pieces of RNA, the older cousin of DNA, are some of the most important molecular interactions in living cells. Many scientists believe that these base pairs were part of life from the very beginning and that RNA was one of the first polymers of life. But there is a problem. The RNA bases don't form base pairs in water unless they are connected to a polymer backbone, a trait that has baffled origin-of-life scientists for decades. If the bases don't pair before they are part of polymers, how would the bases have been selected out from ...

Being stoic for the spouse's sake comes at a high cost

2013-02-20

Among life's many tragedies, the death of a child is one that is perhaps the greatest for parents. No matter what the age of the child or the cause of death, the irrefutable fact of the loss is one that shatters the normal cycle of life, leaving parents traumatized and often incapacitated by grief. Research on coping with bereavement has focused primarily on the individual, despite the fact that family and married relationships are all profoundly disrupted by the loss. But in the wealth of studies about parental grief, little attention has been paid to precisely how couples ...

Study: Resveratrol shows promise to protect hearing, cognition

2013-02-20

DETROIT – Resveratrol, a substance found in red grapes and red wine, may have the potential to protect against hearing and cognitive decline, according to a published laboratory study from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. The study shows that healthy rats are less likely to suffer the long-term effects of noise-induced hearing loss when given resveratrol before being exposed to loud noise for a long period of time. "Our latest study focuses on resveratrol and its effect on bioinflammation, the body's response to injury and something that is believed to be the cause of ...

Children with brain lesions able to use gestures important to language learning

2013-02-20

ATLANTA – Children with brain lesions suffered before or around the time of birth are able to use gestures – an important aspect of the language learning process– to convey simple sentences, a Georgia State University researcher has found. Şeyda Özçalışkan, assistant professor of psychology, and fellow researchers at the University of Chicago, looked at children who suffered lesions to one side of the brain to see whether they used gestures similar to typically developing children. She examined gestures such as pointing to a cookie while saying "eat" to ...

The ethics of access: Comparing 2 federal health care reform efforts

2013-02-20

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Two major health reform laws, enacted 25 years apart, both try to meet an ethical standard to provide broad access to basic health care. Neither quite gets there -- but it's not too late for modern health care reform to bring the nation closer to a goal of comprehensive and coordinated care for all. That's the conclusion of a commentary published in the new issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association by a team of University of Michigan Health System physicians. The authors – a family physician, an emergency physician and a primary care ...

Smoking cessation in old age: Less heart attacks and strokes within 5 years

2013-02-20

Professor Hermann Brenner and colleagues analyzed the data of 8.807 individuals aged between 50 and 74 years using data of Saarland citizens. "We were able to show that the risk of smokers for cardiovascular diseases is more than twice that of non-smokers. However, former smokers are affected at almost the same low rate as people of the same age who never smoked," says Brenner. "Moreover, smokers are affected at a significantly younger age than individuals who have never smoked or have stopped smoking." For example, a 60-year-old smoker has the same risk of myocardial infarction ...

Setting the record straight on Medicare's overhead costs: New study

2013-02-20

The traditional Medicare program allocates only 1 percent of total spending to overhead compared with 6 percent when the privatized portion of Medicare, known as Medicare Advantage, is included, according to a study in the June 2013 issue of the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law. The 1 percent figure includes all types of non-medical spending by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services plus other federal agencies, such as the IRS, that support the Medicare program, and is based on data contained in the latest report of the Medicare trustees. The 6 percent ...

MIT researchers build Quad HD TV chip

2013-02-20

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- It took only a few years for high-definition televisions to make the transition from high-priced novelty to ubiquitous commodity — and they now seem to be heading for obsolescence just as quickly. At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in January, several manufacturers debuted new ultrahigh-definition, or UHD, models (also known as 4K or Quad HD) with four times the resolution of today's HD TVs. In addition to screens with four times the pixels, however, UHD also requires a new video-coding standard, known as high-efficiency video coding, or HEVC. Also ...

Gains made towards treatment of rare bone disease

2013-02-20

This press release is available in French. Diagnosed in toddlers, X-linked hypophosphatemia (XLH) is the most common form of heritable rickets, in which soft bones bend and deform, and tooth abscesses develop because infections penetrate soft teeth that are not properly calcified. Researchers at McGill University and the Federal University of Sao Paulo have identified that osteopontin, a major bone and tooth substrate protein, plays a role in XLH. Their discovery may pave the way to effectively treating this rare disease. The findings were made by the laboratories ...

Searching for the solar system's chemical recipe

2013-02-20

By studying the origins of different isotope ratios among the elements that make up today's smorgasbord of planets, moons, comets, asteroids, and interplanetary ice and dust, Mark Thiemens and his colleagues hope to learn how our solar system evolved. Thiemens, Dean of the Division of Physical Sciences at the University of California, San Diego, has worked on this problem for over three decades. In recent years his team has found the Chemical Dynamics Beamline of the Advanced Light Source (ALS) at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory ...

Potential benefits of inertial fusion energy justify continued R&D

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: