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Fusion energy: Progress, partnerships, and the path to deployment
Over the past decade, fusion energy has moved decisively from scientific aspiration toward a credible pathway to a new energy technology. Thanks to long-term federal support, we have significantly advanced our fundamental understanding of plasma physics—the behavior of the superheated gases at the heart of fusion devices. This knowledge will enable the creation and control of fusion fuel under conditions required for future power plants. Our progress is exemplified by breakthroughs at the National Ignition Facility and the Joint European Torus.
Kamron Fazel, Qi Li, Kostadin Ivanov
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 61 | Number 1 | January 2012 | Pages 469-474
Other Concepts and Assessments | Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems | doi.org/10.13182/FST12-A13465
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This research explores fusion cross section enhancements from electron screening within superconductors, and the feasibility of engineering a system to extract the energy from a superconductor fusion system. There have been claims that superconductors will exhibit superscreening which could significantly increase fusion cross sections. However, there is currently no widely accepted theory to explain superconductor electron screening. This research evaluated if a net energy gain could result from fusion events within superconducting PdD. With the widely accepted critical temperature of 11 K for PdD, no net energy gain would be expected from fusion reactions. However, net energy gain may be possible if a superconductor were developed with a transition temperature above 75 K. With the uncertainty of superconductor electron screening and the possibility of fusion energy extraction, an experiment was designed to close the knowledge gap. By bombarding deuterons onto PdD below the superconducting transition temperature, the superconductor screening contribution can be determined with a 38% average uncertainty of the screening energy with 95% confidence.