Nuclear Energy
Nuclear energy is a form of energy released from the nucleus, the core
of atoms, made up of protons and neutrons.
Introduction
• Nuclear fission is a process that splits atomic nuclei into smaller nuclei, releasing
large amounts of energy. It can occur when a nucleus of a heavy atom captures a
neutron, or it can happen spontaneously.
• Nuclear fusion is the process by which two light atomic nuclei combine to form a
single heavier one while releasing massive amounts of energy.
Nuclear Fission Reactors for Power
Generation
• All nuclear power plants in operation today rely on controlled fission of the isotopes of
uranium and plutonium. Most nuclear reactors use uranium as fuel.
• The reactor functions primarily as an exotic heat source to turn water into pressurized steam.
235 236
• When U is bombarded with a slow neutron, it captures the neutron to form U, which
undergoes fission producing two lighter fragments and releases energy together with two or
three neutrons.
• The neutrons produced in the reaction cause more fission resulting in a self-sustaining chain
reaction. A reactor is considered safe when a self-sustained chain reaction is maintained with
exactly one neutron from each fission inducing yet another fission reaction.
Cont.
• The uranium is processed into small ceramic pellets
and stacked together into sealed metal tubes called
fuel rods. Typically, more than 200 of these rods are
bundled together to form a fuel assembly.
• A reactor core is typically made up of a couple
hundred assemblies, depending on power level.
• Inside the reactor vessel, the fuel rods are immersed
in water which acts as both a coolant and moderator.
The moderator helps slow down the neutrons
produced by fission to sustain the chain reaction.
https://www.energy.gov/
Nuclear fission reactor concerns points
• Design of reactor for prevention of emission of radioactive radiation
• Serious public opposition due to concerns of spread, radioactive
hazardous wastes, the potential for catastrophic Chernobyl (1986)
and Fukushima (2011) like disasters, etc.
• Disposal of highly radioactive waste products
Nuclear Fusion
• In 1920, British astrophysicist Arthur Eddington was the first to suggest that stars draw their apparent
endless energy from the fusion of hydrogen into helium. The first fusion reactions in a laboratory were
achieved in 1934
• Fusion reactions take place in a state of matter called plasma — a hot, charged gas made of positive ions
and free-moving electrons with unique properties distinct from solids, liquids or gases.
• Fusion could generate four times more energy per kilogram of fuel than fission and nearly four million
times more energy than burning oil or coal.
• In theory, with just a few grams of these reactants, it is possible to produce a terajoule of energy, which is
approximately the energy one person in a developed country needs over sixty years.
• First experimental fusion reactor called ITER [1.10] which is under development
Nuclear fusion reaction
• The sun, along with all other stars, is powered by this reaction.
• To fuse in our sun, nuclei need to collide with each other at extremely high temperatures, around
ten million degrees Celsius.
• The high temperature provides them with enough energy to overcome their mutual electrical
repulsion.
• Once the nuclei come within a very close range of each other, the attractive nuclear force between
them will outweigh the electrical repulsion and allow them to fuse.
• For this to happen, the nuclei must be confined within a small space to increase the chances of
collision.
• In the sun, the extreme pressure produced by its immense gravity creates the conditions for
Example
• Deuterium and tritium nuclei (heavier
isotopes of hydrogen) are brought together,
they fuse and form a helium nucleus and a
neutron; the mass difference is released as mass numbers 4
form of energy. mass numbers 3
• Energy comes out in the form of the kinetic
mass numbers 2
energies of the product nuclei, from which it
may be trapped and used for electricity
production.
A mixture of deuterium and tritium — hydrogen atoms that
contain extra neutrons
Fusion in the Sun
• The fusion of hydrogen into helium in the Sun and other stars occurs in three stages.
1. Two ordinary hydrogen nuclei (1H), which are actually just single protons, fuse to
form an isotope of hydrogen called deuterium (2H), which contains one proton and
one neutron.
• A positron (e+) and a neutrino (ν) are also produced.
• The positron is very quickly annihilated in the collision with an electron, and the neutrino travels
right out of the Sun:
Cont.
2. Once created, the deuterium fuses with yet another hydrogen nucleus to produce
3
He—an isotope of 4He. At the same time, a high-energy photon, or γ ray, is
produced.
3. The final step in the reaction chain, which is called the proton-proton cycle, takes
place when a second 3He nucleus, created in the same way as the first, collides and
fuses with another 3He, forming 4He and two protons.
Cont.
• The net result of the proton-proton cycle is that four hydrogen nuclei combine to create one helium nucleus.
• The mass of the end product is 0.0475 × 10-27 kg less than the combined mass of the 3He nuclei. This mass
difference, known as mass defect in the parlance of nuclear physics, is converted into 26.7 MeV of energy as
known from Einstein’s equation E = mc2.
• The proton-proton cycle is particularly slow—only one collision in about 1026 for the cycle to start. As the
cycle proceeds, the Sun’s temperature rises, and eventually three 4He nuclei combine to produce 12C.
• Despite the slowness of the proton-proton cycle, it is the main source of energy for the Sun and for stars less
massive than the Sun. The amount of energy released is enough to keep the Sun shining for billions of years.
Coulomb barrier
• For fusion to occur, one has to bring the protons or heavier reactant nuclei (which are positively charged
and naturally repulsive) close enough to overcome the electrostatic repulsion
• That obstacle called the Coulomb barrier caused by the strongly repulsive electrostatic forces between
the positively charged nuclei prevents them from fusing under normal circumstances.
• Fusion can occur under conditions of extreme pressure and temperature. That is why fusion reaction is
often termed as thermonuclear reaction.
• Nuclei, which have positive charges, must collide at extremely high speeds to overcome the Coulomb
barrier. The speed of particles in a gas is governed by the temperature.
• At the very center of the Sun and other stars, it is extremely hot and density is very high. For the Sun, the
temperature is around 15 million degrees Celsius, and the central density is about 150 times that of water.
Cont.
• Under such extreme conditions, electrons in an atom become completely detached from the atomic nucleus, thereby
forming an ionized fluid called plasma—a “soup” of hot gas, with bare, positively charged atomic nuclei and negatively
charged electrons whizzing about at extremely high speeds.
• The plasma as a mixture of positive ions (nuclei) and negative electrons is overall electrically neutral.
• Without the high pressure of the overlying layers, the hot plasma at the solar core would simply explode into space,
shutting off the nuclear reactions.
• The pressure, which is about 250 billion atmospheres at the Sun’s core, squeezes the nuclei so that they are within 1
fm (10-15 m) of each other.
• At this distance, the attractive strong nuclear force that binds protons and neutrons together in the nucleus
becomes dominant and pulls the incoming particles together, causing them to fuse.
• Additionally, massive gravitational force causes nuclei to be crowded together very densely. This means collisions
occur very frequently, another requirement if a high fusion rate is to occur.
Challenge is to maintain high temperature and
pressure similar to Sun
Nuclear fusion on Earth
“Ignition” temperature
We can estimate the minimum temperature required to initiate fusion by calculating the Coulomb
barrier.
With e2 = 1.44 MeV-fm, where e is the charge of a proton, and r = 1.0 fm (separation between two
protons), the height of the Coulomb barrier is
The kinetic energy of the nuclei moving with a speed v is related to the temperature T by
where kB = 8.62 × 10-11 MeV/K is the Boltzmann constant. By equating the average thermal energy to the Coulomb
barrier height and solving for T gives a value for the temperature of around 10 billion Kelvin (K).
Cont.
• there will be a small probability that the Coulomb barrier will be overcome by nuclei tunneling
through it. The probability P of such an event happening is
turning point r0 and de Broglie wavelength λ=h/mv
h is the Planck constant
• Considering the tunneling probability, we can now estimate the temperature for fusion to occur.
In terms of de Broglie wavelength, the kinetic energy is
• If we require that the nuclei must be closer than the de Broglie wavelength for tunneling to take
over and the nuclei to fuse, then the Coulomb barrier is given by
Cont.
• If we use this wavelength as the distance of closest approach to calculate the temperature, we
obtain
• For two hydrogen nuclei, this gives a temperature of about 20 million Kelvin
Fusion reactor
Since the 1950s, scientists have been working to develop a fusion reactor to harness the nearly
inexhaustible energy produced during fusion. The goals of fusion research at present include the
following
1. To achieve the required temperature to ignite the fusion reaction.
2. To keep the plasma together at this temperature long enough to get useful amounts of
energy out of the thermonuclear fusion reactions.
3. To obtain more energy from the thermonuclear reactions than is used to heat the plasma to
the ignition temperature.
Fuel for fusion reactor
• Fuel for a fusion reactor is hydrogen (hydrogen isotopes deuterium (2H) and tritium (3H))
• Deuterium is found aplenty in ocean water, enough to last for billions of years.
• Naturally occurring tritium is extremely rare. It is radioactive with a half-life of around 12
years. Trace quantities of tritium can be found in cosmic rays.
• Nevertheless, tritium can be produced inside a reactor by neutron (n) activation of
lithium (Li), which is found in brines, minerals, and clays.
• For deuterium and tritium reaction, we must first create the tritium from either flavor of
lithium:
or
t is tritium
Cont.
The next step in the reaction is
d is deuterium
• The neutrons generated from the d-t fusion can be used to bombard lithium to produce helium
and tritium, thereby starting a controlled, sustainable chain reaction.
• The mass of the resulting helium atom and neutron is not the exact sum of the masses of
deuterium and tritium. Once again, because of mass defect, each lithium nucleus converted to
tritium will end up yielding about 18 MeV of thermal energy.
• Compared to fission, where each split of uranium releases about 200 MeV of energy, it might
appear that the energy released during fusion is rather small.
• The discrepancy in the energies lies in the number of nucleons involved in the reactions—more
than 200 for fission and 5 for fusion. On a per nucleon basis, fusion releases 18/5 = 3.6 MeV,
while fission releases 200/236 = 0.85 MeV. So, fusion by greater than a factor of 4.
Cont.
• The other fusion scheme for which the required fuel (4He) will be produced is d + d → 4He. Another reaction,
2
H+3He→4He + p, is an example of a fusion reaction that releases its energy entirely in the form of charged
particles, rather than neutrons, thereby offering the possibility, at least in principle, of direct conversion of
fusion energy into electrical energy.
• However, the cross sections and reaction rates for both the reactions are as much as a factor of 10 lower than the
d-t reaction.
• Moreover, because of the higher Coulomb barrier (~2.88 MeV), the ignition temperatures required for 2H + 3He
reaction are much higher than those of d-t fusion.
• An interesting fusion reaction is a proton colliding with boron (B). The proton fuses with 11B to form 12C which
immediately decays into three alpha (4H nucleus) particles. A total energy of 8.7 MeV is released in the form of
kinetic energy of the alpha particles.
Conditions for fusion reaction
• In order to attain the temperature for fusion to occur, the plasma has to meet some conditions. They
are Lawson criterion and Debye length.
Lawson criterion
• In addition to providing a sufficiently high temperature to enable the particles to overcome the Coulomb
barrier, a critical density of the ions in the plasma must be maintained to make the probability of
fusion high enough to achieve a net yield of energy from the reaction.
• The condition which must be met for a yield of more energy than is required for the heating of the
plasma is stated in terms of the product of the plasma density (nd) and confinement time (τ). The
product has to satisfy the inequality:
for d-t fusion
This relation is called the Lawson criterion.
Cont.
• To summarize, three main conditions are necessary for nuclear fusion:
1. The temperature must be hot enough to allow the ions to overcome the Coulomb barrier and fuse together.
This requires a temperature of at least 100 million degrees Celsius.
2. The ions have to be confined together in close proximity to allow them to fuse. A suitable ion density is 2 - 3 ×
1020 ions/m3.
3. The ions must be held together in close proximity at high temperature long enough to avoid plasma cooling.
At higher densities, charged particles in the plasma moving at high speeds may give rise to bremsstrahlung—radiation given off by
a charged particle (most often an electron) due to its acceleration caused by an electric field of another charged particle (most
often a proton or an atomic nucleus). Bremsstrahlung could become so dominant that all the energy in the plasma may radiate
away. Other radiation losses, including synchrotron radiation from charged particles orbiting about magnetic fields would be
negligible. A fusion reactor, therefore, must be operated at a temperature where the power gain from fusion would exceed the
bremsstrahlung losses.
Debye length
• A parameter that determines the electrostatic properties of a plasma is called the Debye length LD
ε0 is the permittivity of free space
e electron charge
• It is a length scale over which electrons screen out electric fields in the plasma. In other words, it is the distance over
which significant charge separation can occur and how far its electrostatic effect persists.
• For distances greater than the Debye length, the energy of the particles in the plasma balances the electrostatic
potential energy.
• Using nd = 1028 particles/m3, the Debye length for a 10 keV plasma is of the order of 10 nm, and the number of particles in
a volume of the plasma of one Debye length is about 104. For a more rarefied plasma, nd = 1022 particles/m3, LD = 10 μm,
and the number of particles in a volume of dimension of one Debye length is 10 7.
• In either of these two extreme cases, there are two basic properties: the physical size of the plasma is far larger than the
Debye length, and there are many particles in a spherical volume of radius equal to one Debye length. They are these
Plasma confinement
• Each fusion reaction is characterized by a specific ignition temperature, which must be surpassed before
the reaction can occur. In stars, which are made of plasma, fusion takes place because of immense
gravitational forces and extreme temperatures.
• One of the major requirements in the development of a fusion reactor is the actual realization of the
ignition temperature of d-t reaction, which is 100 million degrees Celsius. Once all the conditions are
realized, the challenge to contain and control the staggering levels of heat in the plasma.
• That is because the plasma must not only be heated to a temperature of at least 100 million degrees
Celsius, but the energy must also be confined within the plasma without being carried to walls of the
container for times long enough for the relatively infrequent fusion events to occur.
• Otherwise, the plasma will exchange energy with the walls, cool itself down, and melt the container.
• Many techniques have been developed, but the two main experimental approaches that seem capable of
doing this task are magnetic confinement and inertial confinement.
Magnetic confinement
• This method uses strong magnetic fields to contain the hot plasma and prevent it
from coming into contact with the reactor walls.
• The magnetic fields keep the plasma in perpetually looping paths because the
electrical charges on the separated ions and electrons mean that they follow the
magnetic field lines. As a consequence, the plasma does not touch the wall of
the container.
• Magnetic confinement systems
• Tokamak
• Stellarator
• Tokamak is considered to be the most developed magnetic confinement system.
Hence, it is the workhorse of fusion.
Tokamak
• Meaning toroidal chamber with magnetic coils, was designed
in 1951 by Soviet physicists
toroidal field coils
• It is a doughnut-shaped device in which the poloidal field
combination of two sets of magnetic coils, known as coils
toroidal and poloidal field coils, creates a field in
both vertical and horizontal directions.
• The combination of these two fields creates a
three-dimensional curve, like a helix (shown in
black), in which the plasma is highly confined.
• They essentially create a “cage,” a magnetic bottle,
inside which the plasma is confined.
• A strong electric current is induced in the plasma
using a central solenoid, and this induced current
also contributes to the poloidal field. poloidal magnetic field (green vertical circle)
toroidal (green horizontal circle)
electric field induced by a transformer drives a current
(big red arrows)
Stellarators
• Unlike tokamaks, stellarators do not require a
toroidal current to be induced in the plasma. Instead,
the plasma is confined and heated by means of
helical magnetic field lines.
• They are produced by a series of coils which may
themselves be helical in shape. As a result, plasma
stability is increased compared with tokamaks.
• Since heating the plasma can be more easily
controlled and monitored with stellarators, they have
an intrinsic potential for steady-state, continuous
operation.
• The disadvantage is that stellarators are much more
complicated than tokamaks to design and build.
Cont.
• Tokamaks are better at keeping plasmas hot,
• Stellarators are better at keeping them stable.
• Despite the tokamak’s current prevalence, it is still possible that
stellarators could one day become the preferred option for a
prospective fusion energy plant.
Inertial confinement
• After the invention of laser in 1960 at Hughes Research Laboratory in California, researchers sought to heat the fusion
fuels with a laser so suddenly that the plasma would not have time to escape before it was burned in the fusion reaction.
• It would be trapped by its own inertia, hence the name “inertial confinement,” because it relies on the inertia of the
implosion to bring nuclei close together. This approach to confinement was developed at Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory in California.
• Within the context of inertial confinement, laser beams with an intensity of the order of 10 14 – 1015 W/cm2 are fired on a
solid pellet filled with a low-density mixture of deuterium and tritium.
• The energy of the laser vaporizes the pellet instantly producing a surrounding plasma environment for a short period of
time. During the process, the density and temperature of the fuel attains a high enough value to ignite the fusion
reaction.
Cont.
• The capability of present lasers does not allow the inertial confinement technique to obtain
break-even conditions, simply because the efficiency for converting electrical energy into
radiation is very low, about 1–10%.
• Consequently, alternative approaches are being explored to achieve the ignition temperature.
One such approach involves using beams of charged particles instead of lasers.
Cold fusion
• Scientists at UCLA initiated fusion using a pyroelectric crystal.
• They put the crystal into a small container filled with hydrogen, warmed the
crystal to produce an electric field, and inserted a metal wire into the container
to focus the charge.
• The focused electric field powerfully repelled the positively charged hydrogen
nuclei, and in the rush away from the wire, the nuclei smashed into each other
with enough force to fuse.
• The reaction took place at room temperature.
Fusion research
• The plasma temperature needed for ignition is produced by external heating. Powerful
methods were developed for this purpose. They are:
1. Heating by injection of neutral beams: In this method, neutralized particles with high
kinetic energy, produced in an ion source, are injected into the plasma, whereby they
transfer their energy to the plasma through collisions.
2. Heating by high-frequency radio or microwaves: When electromagnetic waves of
appropriate frequency are beamed into the plasma, the plasma particles absorb energy
from the field of the wave and transfer it to the other particles through collisions.
3. Heating with current: When an electric current is passed through the plasma, it generates
heat in the plasma through its resistance. As the resistance decreases with increasing
temperature, this method is only suitable for initial heating.
These methods produce temperatures of 100 million degrees Celsius in present-day fusion
devices.
Research programs
• Experiments with d-t fuel began in the early 1990s in the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor in
Princeton (USA) and the Joint European Torus (JET) in Culham (UK).
• The world’s first controlled release of fusion power using a 50–50 mix of tritium and
deuterium with a fusion output of 16 MW from an input of 24 MW heating (Q-factor is 0.67)
was achieved in 1991 by JET.
• The Q-factor is used to represent the ratio of the power produced in the fusion reaction to
the power required to produce the fusion.
• Obviously, Q-factor of 1 is breakeven. To achieve commercially viable fusion energy, the
Q-factor must be much greater than one.
International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER)
The project currently under construction in France, is the world’s largest tokamak fusion reactor. The goals of ITER are:
1. To operate at 500 MW (for at least 400 s continuously) with less than 50 MW of input power for a tenfold energy gain
(Q-factor is 10).
2. Demonstrate the integrated operation of technologies for a fusion power plant and test technologies for heating, control,
diagnostics, cryogenics, and remote maintenance.
3. Achieve a d-t plasma in which the reaction is sustained through internal heating and stays confined within the plasma
efficiently enough for the reaction to be sustained for a long duration.
4. Test tritium breeding because the world supply of tritium is not sufficient to cover the needs of future power plants.
5. Demonstrate the safety characteristics of a fusion device, particularly the control of the plasma and fusion reactions with
negligible consequences to the environment.
Key points about ITER
• Initial budget was close to €6 billion
• The world's largest tokamak
• Major radius 6.2 m
• Plasma volume 840 m3
• Heating power 320 MW (electrical input)
50 MW (thermal absorbed)
• Fusion power 0 MW (electrical generation)
500 MW (thermal from fusion)
• Date(s) of construction 2013–2039
•ITER Timeline
•2005 Decision to site the project in France
•2006 Signature of the ITER Agreement
•2007 Formal creation of the ITER Organization
•2007-2009 Land clearing and levelling
•2008 Machine component fabrication begins
•2010-2014 Ground support structure and seismic foundations for the Tokamak Complex
•2010-2024 Construction of ITER plant and auxiliary buildings
•2012 Nuclear licensing milestone: ITER becomes a Basic Nuclear Installation under
French law
•2015 Largest components are transported along the ITER Itinerary
•2020 Machine assembly begins
•2023 Completion of Tokamak Building civil works
•2024 (June) Updated ITER baseline proposal submitted to the ITER Council
Advantages of fusion reactors
1. They will produce at least five times more energy than the amount of energy it will need to heat
the fusing nuclei to the desired temperature.
2. Furthermore, it is estimated that to run a 1000 MW power plant for a year, a fusion reactor will
require about 3000 m3 of water (source of deuterium) and 10 tonnes of lithium ore. Fusion fuels
are widely available and nearly inexhaustible. Deuterium can be distilled from all forms of
water, while reserves of lithium, both terrestrial and sea-based, would fulfill needs of fusion
reactors for millions of years.
3. Unlike fission, fusion will have a low burden of radioactive waste. They will not produce
high-level nuclear wastes like their fission counterparts, so disposal will be less of a problem.
Fusions by-product is helium—an inert, nontoxic, and nonradioactive gas used to inflate
children's balloons.
Cont.
4. Fusion reactors are inherently incapable of a runaway reaction that could result in a
core meltdown, the most serious calamity possible in a fission reactor. This is because
there is no critical mass required for fusion. Besides, fusion reactors work like a gas
burner; once the fuel supply is shut off, the reaction stops. There will, therefore, be
no off-site radiation-related deaths, even from a severe accident.
5. Despite being technically nonrenewable, fusion has many of the benefits of
renewable energy sources, such as being a long-term source of energy emitting no
greenhouse gases. Besides, because it is not dependent on weather, fusion could
provide uninterrupted power delivery, unlike solar and wind power.
Disadvantages of fusion reactors
1. Some radioactive wastes will be produced due to neutron activation of lithium to
produce tritium inside the reactor, but their inventory will be much less than those
from fission, and they will be short-lived. Nonetheless, if accidentally released in the
air or water, tritium will remain radioactive for a period equal to at least 10
half-lives or 120 years.
2. The neutrons will irradiate the surrounding structures giving rise to radioactive
nuclides, which ultimately have to be disposed of in some waste facility. But their
stock will be considerably lower than that from actinides used in fission based
reactors.
3. Since most of the energy in the d-t reaction is carried away by the neutrons, this
could lead to neutron leakage that could be significantly higher than uranium
reactors. More neutron leakage means more shielding and improved protection for
workers at the power plant.
