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Nuclear Fusion: Bringing Star Power to Earth
“Bringing Star Power to Earth” reads a giant banner draped across a $3.5 billion building known as the National Ignition Facility, or NIF in Livermore, California. On Friday 26th June 2009 The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory will be officially opened and some 3,500 people will attend including Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Energy Secretary Steven Chu (whose agency finances NIF) and Charles Townes, a Nobel Laureate and laser pioneer. The aim of the National Ignition Facility is to generate electricity using nuclear fusion reactors - a dream physicists have had for over half a century.
Since coal, oil and gas are polluting and becoming increasingly expensive we need cleaner and cheaper fuel. Some feel that Nuclear energy is one possibility. Nuclear energy is released during fission and fusion reactions. Currently, nuclear reactors operate by nuclear fission whereby large elements like uranium are split into smaller elements releasing energy. This leads to long-term radioactive waste and environmental threats.
Nuclear fusion on the other hand releases helium which is harmless and radiaoactive tritium which has a twelve year half life, lower than that of nuclear fission wastes. Tritium waste may be harmful cumulatively and this needs to be thoroughly investigated and although the risk of an catastrophic disaster is considered to be lower than with nuclear fission there is still a risk.
Today marks the 23rd Anniversary of the Chernobyl Disaster whereby one hundred times more radiation was released into the atmosphere by the violent explosion at the nuclear reactors than by the atom bombs dropped over both Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Over 350 000 people had to be evacuated and resettled and the Chernobyl Forum, written by specialists including the World Heath Organization, confirms that 4000 people have died as a result of the Chernobyl Disaster – forty times more than UK soldiers killed in Iraq.
The damaging effects of Chernobyl are still being seen today, thousands of children and adolescents contracted thyroid cancer as a result of Chernobyl and Professor Edmund Lengfelder, an expert in radiation, predicts that up to 100 000 more people in the region will be affected. There has also been a global increase in breast cancer. Life expectancy in the Gomel region dropped from 72.6 to 67.6 years by 2000. Birth rate dropped from 17.2 to 9.7 per cent and mortality had increased from 9.2 to 24.8 per cent. Now 23 years on there is a shortage of young people and not enough doctors or teachers which affects the quality of education and health services and the whole economy.
Nuclear fusion is a natural phenomenon - the Earth is warmed by a huge nuclear fusion reactor namely the sun. Nuclear fusion also occurs naturally in stars causing them to release light energy which we see as shining stars at night hence ‘star power’.
Nuclear fusion occurs when like-charged atomic nuclei join together to form a heavier nucleus and release energy. This occurs at very high temperatures of millions of degrees Fahrenheit whereby nuclear collisions are energetic enough to overcome the repulsive forces between two positive charged nuclei. Due to these high temperatures it has been difficult to develop viable nuclear reactors despite 50 years of research.
The National Ignition Facility plans to develop viable fusion reactors. The aim is that the facility’s 192 lasers — made of nearly 60 miles of mirrors and fiber optics, crystals and light amplifiers — will fire as one to crush a speck of hydrogen fuel smaller than a match head. Compressed and heated to temperatures hotter than the core of a star, the hydrogen atoms will fuse into helium and release thermonuclear energy.
The National Ignition Facility with its 192 laser beams has the world’s most powerful laser and the largest optical instrument ever built. Raising its energies still further to the point of ignition could take a year or more of experimentation and might, officials concede, prove daunting and perhaps impossible.
Cynics dismiss NIF as a mammoth mistake that is wasting precious resources during an economic recession since it will cost $140 million a year to operate and according to cynics it will not work.
At the World Science Festival held in New York in June 2009, there were two lines of thought some believe in nuclear power and others believe that it will soon be redundant. The latter think that nuclear power would only be needed for the next 30 years since by 2040, the world economy will be 100% renewable, harnessing concentrated solar, wind, wave, tidal and run-off-river hydro. Therefore, 4th generation nuclear reactors, such as nuclear fusion are not necessary and money should not be spent developing them.
One argument often used against nuclear power is that it diverts effort and money away from renewables. This is not entirely true. France, the country with the most nuclear reactors and the strongest pro-nuclear public policy, generates 11% of its electricity from renewables. The US, which does not have a clear pro-nuclear federal policy, generates only 9% from renewables, and the UK, which until recently had an anti-nuclear policy, only 5%.
The most powerful argument against nuclear power is that it contributes to nuclear proliferation. Later this week the International Atomic Energy Agency will consider Obama’s proposals for an internationally controlled nuclear fuel bank. That proposal, coupled with Obama’s promise to begin negotiations to eliminate global nuclear weapons, is the only way to build nuclear power stations without spreading nuclear weapons.
Returning to NIF, according to Dr. Moses, the project’s director, any great endeavor involves risks and the gamble will be worth it because of the potential rewards. Since if successful, NIF will lead the way for radically new kinds of power plants providing a limitless supply of carbon-free energy that’s not geopolitically sensitive. Still it seems ironic that the NIF station is being celebrated on the anniversary of the Chernobyl Disaster. What are your thoughts? Have your say. We welcome your thoughts and proposals. Add your comment below. Have your say. We welcome your thoughts and proposals. Add your comment below. Not a Citizen? Sign up
