Con-Fusion: Confounding Fusion Weapons with Fusion Energy

[Oscar]

Con-Fusion: Confounding Fusion Weapons with Fusion Energy

[ http://ccnr.org/Con-Fusion_2014_02_15.pdf ]

by Robert Alvarez, February 15, 2014

Recently, national media attention was given to the publication of a paper by scientists at the Lawrence-Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) announcing that fusion of hydrogen atoms was achieved involving lasers at the National Ignition Facility (NIF).

[See article posted below, entitled U.S. scientists Achieve 'turning point' in fusion energy quest.]

Nuclear Weapons Research

NIF is a major project of the U.S. nuclear weapons complex managed by the National Nuclear Security Administration within the Energy Department. Based on the concept of inertial confinement fusion (ICF), the NIF was established with two major goals:

(1) to preserve and advance the intellectual capability in service to the U.S. nuclear arsenal (Stockpile Stewardship); and

(2) to develop "pure fusion" nuclear weapons that will not require plutonium "triggers" to ignite a thermonuclear detonation.

The latter is a "holy grail" for nuclear weaponeers at LLNL.

Having worked in the Energy Department at the time when NIF was launched, I know – and it was well understood – that this project was part of the political price for support from LLNL of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

To achieve its primary goal, NIF – a football-stadium-sized project – is meant to generate extreme pressure and heat, comparable to that created by a nuclear fission weapon, to yield a very small-scale thermonuclear explosion. This is to be done by focusing 192 powerful lasers on a target of millimeter dimensions containing a gas mixture of stable hydrogen and tritium (H-3 - a radioactive form of hydrogen).

NIF's entire budget comes from the "Weapons Activities" account of the DOE budget. DOE/NNSA has been spending several hundreds-ofmillions of dollars per year for the past 20 years on this project.

Currently, NIF is spending $400 million (in FY2014).

Conversion or Camouflage?

When it started to experience costly and time consuming set-backs, the NIF “became” a technology to provide "an inexhaustible supply of energy". The recent news story announcing that nuclear fusion was achieved for a very brief time is an example of how LLNL has changed the goal posts of this troubled project from demonstrating the viability of ICF [for weapons purposes] to pulling off a "credible" experiment [for peaceful purposes].

The first actual ignition experiment – now being touted as a "breakthrough" – is actually ten years behind schedule.

It's no coincidence that publication and announcement of this experiment was made public around the time that the U.S. Congress has to approve the budget for NIF, now estimated to have a current total cost of about $7 billion.

It's also no coincidence that the promise of NIF “to solve our energy problems” began to be touted around the time its budget came under closer critical scrutiny. Even pronuclear advocates, such as Rod Adams, scoff at the idea of NIF serving this purpose.

Not much was said [in the news reports] about the fact that the experiment took a very much larger amount of energy than it produced. As pointed out by Arjun Makahijani, who has a PhD in fusion engineering: "you need an improvement in performance of tens of thousands of times before a shot can be deemed fit for a power producing machine".

If this project weren't wrapped around the energy "breakthrough" flag, behind the protective walls of the nuclear weapons budget, it probably wouldn't have survived as long as it has.

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U.S. scientists achieve 'turning point' in fusion energy quest

[ http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/ ... TN20140212 ]

BY WILL DUNHAM, Reuters, WASHINGTON, Feb 12, 2014

http://tinyurl.com/l6b245r

(Reuters) - U.S. scientists announced on Wednesday an important milestone in the costly, decades-old quest to develop fusion energy, which, if harnessed successfully, promises a nearly inexhaustible energy source for future generations.

For the first time, experiments have produced more energy from fusion reactions than the amount of energy put into the fusion fuel, scientists at the federally funded Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California said.

The researchers, led by physicist Omar Hurricane, described the achievement as important but said much more work is needed before fusion can become a viable energy source. They noted that did not produce self-heating nuclear fusion, known as ignition, that would be needed for any fusion power plant.

Researchers have faced daunting scientific and engineering challenges in trying to develop nuclear fusion - the process that powers stars including our sun - for use by humankind.

"Really for the first time anywhere, we've gotten more energy out of this fuel than was put into the fuel. And that's quite unique. And that's kind of a major turning point, in a lot of our minds," Hurricane told reporters.

"I think a lot of people are jazzed."

Unlike fossil fuels or the fission process in nuclear power plants, fusion offers the prospect of abundant energy without pollution, radioactive waste or greenhouse gases.

Unlike the current nuclear fission energy that is derived from splitting atoms, fusion energy is produced by fusing atoms together.

Experts believe it still will be many years or decades before fusion can become a practical energy source.

"I wish I could put a date on it," said Hurricane. "But it really is (just) research. And, you know, although we're doing pretty good, we'd be lying to you if we told you a date."

Of the uncertain path ahead in fusion research, Hurricane compared it to "climbing half way up a mountain, but the top of the mountain is hidden in clouds. You can't see it. You don't have a map".

The research was conducted at the laboratory's National Ignition Facility (NIF), which was completed in 2009.

MORE:

[ http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/ ... TN20140212 ]