Fusion
The Energy of the Universe
- 2nd Edition - April 9, 2012
- Imprint: Academic Press
- Authors: Garry McCracken, Peter Stott
- Language: English
- Paperback ISBN:9 7 8 - 0 - 1 2 - 3 8 4 6 5 6 - 3
- eBook ISBN:9 7 8 - 0 - 1 2 - 3 8 4 6 5 7 - 0
Fusion: The Energy of the Universe, 2e is an essential reference providing basic principles of fusion energy from its history to the issues and realities progressing from the prese… Read more
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Request a sales quoteFusion: The Energy of the Universe, 2e is an essential reference providing basic principles of fusion energy from its history to the issues and realities progressing from the present day energy crisis. The book provides detailed developments and applications for researchers entering the field of fusion energy research. This second edition includes the latest results from the National Ignition Facility at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory at Livermore, CA, and the progress on the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) tokamak programme at Caderache, France.
- Comprehensive coverage— basic principles, detailed developments and practical applications
- Wide accessibility, but with sufficient detail to keep the technical reader engaged
- Details the initial discovery of nuclear fusion, current attempts to create nuclear fusion here on earth and today's concern over future energy supply
- Color illustrations and examples
- Includes technical notes for aspiring physicists
Researchers and graduate students in the fusion area—inertial fusion and magnetic fusion, and high energy density science, and aerospace; scientists; physicists; electrical and nuclear engineer; chemists. industrial engineers
Dedication
Technical Summaries
Foreword to the Second Edition
Foreword to the First Edition
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. What Is Nuclear Fusion?
1.1 The Alchemists’ Dream
1.2 The Sun’s Energy
1.3 Can We Use Fusion Energy?
1.4 Man-Made Suns
1.5 The Rest of the Story
Chapter 2. Energy from Mass
2.1 Einstein’s Theory
2.2 Building Blocks
2.3 Something Missing
Chapter 3. Fusion in the Sun and Stars
3.1 The Source of the Sun’s Energy
3.2 The Solar Furnace
3.3 Gravitational Confinement
3.4 The Formation of Heavier Atoms
3.5 Stars and Supernovae
Chapter 4. Man-Made Fusion
4.1 Down to Earth
4.2 Getting It Together
4.3 Breaking Even
Chapter 5. Magnetic Confinement
5.1 The First Experiments
5.2 Behind Closed Doors
5.3 Opening the Doors
5.4 ZETA
5.5 From Geneva to Novosibirsk
Chapter 6. The Hydrogen Bomb
6.1 The Background
6.2 The Problems
6.3 Beyond the “Sloyka”
6.4 Peaceful Uses?
Chapter 7. Inertial-Confinement Fusion
7.1 Mini-Explosions
7.2 Using Lasers
7.3 Alternative Drivers
7.4 The Future Program
Chapter 8. False Trails
8.1 Fusion in a Test Tube?
8.2 Bubble Fusion
8.3 Fusion with Mesons
Chapter 9. Tokamaks
9.1 The Basics
9.2 Instabilities
9.3 Diagnosing the Plasma
9.4 Impurities
9.5 Heating the Plasma
Chapter 10. From T3 to ITER
10.1 The Big Tokamaks
10.2 Pushing to Peak Performance
10.3 Tritium Operation
10.4 Scaling to a Power Plant
10.5 The Next Step
10.6 Continuing Research
10.7 Variations on the Tokamak Theme
10.8 Stellarators Revisited
Chapter 11. ITER
11.1 Historical Background
11.2 The Construction Phase Begins
11.3 Overview of the ITER Tokamak
11.4 The Construction Schedule
Chapter 12. Large Inertial-Confinement Systems
12.1 Driver Energy
12.2 The National Ignition Facility
12.3 Laser Mégajoule (LMJ)
12.4 OMEGA and OMEGA EP
12.5 FIREX
12.6 HiPER
12.7 Future Steps
Chapter 13. Fusion Power Plants
13.1 Early Plans
13.2 Fusion Power-Plant Geometry
13.3 Radiation Damage and Shielding
13.4 Low-Activation Materials
13.5 Magnetic-Confinement Fusion
13.6 Conceptual Power-Plant Studies and DEMO
13.7 Inertial-Confinement Fusion
13.8 A Demonstration ICF Power Plant—LIFE
13.9 Tritium Breeding
Chapter 14. Why We Will Need Fusion Energy
14.1 World Energy Needs
14.2 The Choice of Fuels
14.3 The Environmental Impact of Fusion Energy
14.4 The Cost of Fusion Energy
Units
Scientific Notation
Units
Glossary
Further Reading
Index
- Edition: 2
- Published: April 9, 2012
- No. of pages (Paperback): 248
- No. of pages (eBook): 248
- Imprint: Academic Press
- Language: English
- Paperback ISBN: 9780123846563
- eBook ISBN: 9780123846570
GM
Garry McCracken
Garry McCracken gained a PhD in solid state physics but has spent most of his working life as an experimental physicist working on various aspects of the magnetic confinement fusion program with the UK Atomic Energy Authority at Culham Laboratory. His main interest has been in the study of the plasma boundary and in the interaction between the plasma and the surrounding structures and in studying the design of fusion reactors and the radiation damage problems which may be encountered. In 1979 he spent a year at the Plasma Physics Laboratory of Princeton University, USA, where he worked on the Princeton Large Tokamak.
When the JET Joint Undertaking was set up as a European Fusion Laboratory to build the JET experiment he led a Task Agreement on the plasma boundary physics. His group built and installed major diagnostics on JET and an active experimental programme was pursued. In 1993 he went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA and worked on the C-Mod tokamak in the Plasma Fusion Center. Returning to the UK in 1996 to work again on JET, until his retirement in 1999.
He has published over 300 scientific papers including three major reviews in the general area of plasma-surface interactions. He was a regular lecturer at the Culham Plasma Physics Summer School until 1991 and has been invited to lecture at a number of other Summer school courses in Canada and Europe. During these latter lectures he began to feel that there was no adequate book to explain the subject of nuclear fusion to the staring physicist and engineer or the interested layman and set about writing the present book.
Affiliations and expertise
UK Atomic Energy Authority, Culham Laboratory, Oxfordshire, UKPS
Peter Stott
Peter Stott became interested in fusion energy whilst still an undergraduate student in 1962 and did his PhD in theoretical and experimental plasma physics working between Manchester University and the Harwell and Culham Laboratories. He joined the UK Atomic Energy Authority at Culham Laboratory in 1966 and has spent his professional career as an experimental physicist working on magnetic confinement fusion.
After several years working on lower temperature plasma experiments, he moved into tokamak research in 1970. In 1973-5 he spent 18 months at the Plasma Physics Laboratory of Princeton University, USA working on the ATC tokamak. He has pursued a wide range of interests in the tokamak field including: the first applications of neutral beam injection heating, development of the control of impurities by gettering and by divertors, plasma boundary physics, plasma confinement and plasma diagnostics.
In 1979 he joined the JET Joint Undertaking to take charge of the design and construction of the plasma diagnostics systems and from 1982 to 1999 he was Head of JET’s Experimental Division 1. From 1989 to 1999 he was coordinator for the European contribution to the design of diagnostics for the ITER project and was a member of the International Advisory Group. He left JET in 1999 to move to the Département des Recherches sur la Fusion Contrôlée, Cadarache, France.
He has published over 200 scientific papers and has edited six books on plasma diagnostics and co-authored two on fusion energy. He has a keen interest in scientific publishing: being Honorary Editor of the journal Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion from 1991 to 2000 and a member of its International Advisory Panel since 2000; a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Nuclear Fusion from 1987 to 1994; and Series Editor of the Institute of Physics Series of Books in Plasma Physics since 1995. He has been Director of the regular series of Courses and Workshops in Plasma Diagnostics.
Affiliations and expertise
Département des Recherches sur la Fusion Contrôlée, Cadarache, FranceRead Fusion on ScienceDirect