[Vision2020] Fusion Delayed: ITER Start Date Moved Again

Ted Moffett starbliss at gmail.com
Fri Mar 12 10:11:50 PST 2010


Nuclear fusion to help solve energy problems (fossil fuel depletion and
pollution, anthropogenic climate warming) is a long way off, if it ever
becomes practical, affordable and safe.

But what I have read about fourth generation fast fission reactors, seems
too good to be true: they can help solve the nuclear waste problem by
burning existing nuclear waste stockpiles as fuel, generating less nuclear
waste, and generate tremendous amounts of energy without further uranium
mining.  Safety can also be improved over older reactor designs, with
fortifications to thwart terror attacks.

The anti-nuclear and/or environmental movement might consider that by
blocking nuclear energy development and deployment, they are likely forcing
the world's economies to use more fossil fuels, thus increasing
anthropogenic climate warming.  The development of fourth generation fast
reactors was hampered in the US by what seems like anti-nuclear hysteria,
when the facts about the harms and hazards from nuclear power (not nuclear
weapons development) are examined.

Coal power plants have been/are far more harmful to the environment and
human health, than the record of nuclear power indicates.

Russia just made a deal to build 16 nuclear reactors for India, as the news
story at the website below indicates.  Putin claims their reactors can
withstand a hit from an aircraft, to address worries about nuclear power and
terrorism:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8561365.stm

------------------
NASA climate scientist James Hansen is advocating development of
fourth generation fast nuclear reactors, to address lowering fossil fuel
emissions:
  http://www.stormsofmygrandchildren.com/climate_catastrophe_solutions.html

>From website above:

"The bottom line seems to be that it is not feasible in the foreseeable
future to phase out coal unless nuclear power is included in the energy
mix."

------------

>From website above:
Energy efficiency and renewable energy rate first priority in the suite of
technologies needed to phase out carbon emissions. But in most countries,
phase-out of coal emissions requires also *a carbon-free source of baseload
electric power* that is competitive in price with coal. Until we have
another way to meet 21st century energy needs while eliminating coal and
carbon emissions, nuclear power appears to be the only option.
------------
The (“3rd generation”) nuclear technology ready to replace the aging
2ndgeneration reactors in the United States and other counties is
inherently
safer than existing nuclear power, which already has an exemplary safety
record – however, it still burns less than one percent of the nuclear fuel
and leaves a long-lived nuclear waste pile. Hansen recommends initiating
urgent development of a* fourth-generation nuclear power plant*. These
“fast” nuclear reactors utilize more than 99 percent of the fuel and can
“burn” nuclear waste, thus solving the nuclear waste problem that concerns
so many.
------------------------------------------
Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett

On 3/11/10, Ron Force <rforce2003 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>  The old joke: "Fusion is the energy source of the future...and always
> will be."
>
> Ron Force
> Moscow ID USA
>
>
>  ------------------------------
> *From:* Ted Moffett <starbliss at gmail.com>
> *To:* Moscow Vision 2020 <vision2020 at moscow.com>
> *Sent:* Thu, March 11, 2010 4:22:42 PM
> *Subject:* [Vision2020] Fusion Delayed: ITER Start Date Moved Again
>
> Practical affordable large scale global roll out of power from nuclear
> fusion can't happen fast enough... But I wonder if it ever will be the
> promised land of energy salvation some think it could be... Won't the
> world's fossil fuel corporations oppose this?
>
>
> http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2010/03/fusion-delayed-iter-startdate-mo.html
>  Fusion Delayed: ITER Start Date Moved Again
> by Daniel Clery on March 11, 2010 6:20 AM
>
> The scheduled start-up date for the ITER fusion reactor project looks set
> to slip again by 10 months to November 2019. The new date comes less than a
> year after the start-up was shifted from 2016 to 2018. William Brinkman,
> director of the Department of Energy's Office of Science, said at a
> meeting <http://aries.ucsd.edu/fpa/fpn10-19.shtml> of fusion energy
> advisers on Monday that the schedule was changed at a meeting of ITER heads
> of delegations in Paris in late February.
>
> ITER <http://www.iter.org/default.aspx>, an enormous research fusion
> reactor which is shortly due to begin construction in France, is a
> collaboration between China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea,
> Russia, and the United States and is due to cost somewhere between €5
> billion and €10 billion. (The cost is a current bone of contention.) Over
> the past couple of years, the funding partners have become alarmed about the
> rapidly escalating cost estimates and delays in getting the project moving.
> The ITER council ordered reviews of the costing system and the project
> management. Sources say that the European Union, which, as host, is
> shouldering 45% of the construction cost, has been calling<http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2009/11/iter-fusion-rea.html>for more construction time because of concern that pushing ahead too fast
> could lead to unacceptable technical risks. Although Brinkman does not name
> the E.U., he says that a delay until 2020 was requested but after objections
> the meeting settled on a start date of late in 2019.
>
> Brinkman also said that the review of the ITER management structure was
> "very negative." Researchers close to the project told *Science *that when
> the project was officially created in 2006, too much power was given to the
> seven Domestic Agencies, the bodies in each partner that procure parts for
> the reactor from industry, and not enough to the central organization, which
> consequently cannot manage the project properly. Brinkman says this issue is
> now being addressed and told the committee, in less than kind words, what
> he'd like to do to the person who designed the current management structure.
>
>
> The ITER management is now adjusting cost estimates and construction
> schedules to take account of the new completion date. Those documents and
> the reactor's detailed design must be approved by the full ITER council,
> which is due to meet next in June but could call a meeting sooner.
>
> -----------------------------------------
>
> Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20100312/be76fffa/attachment.html 


More information about the Vision2020 mailing list