Heavy Ion Fusion - An opportunity to provide a simultaneous long term solution to the Energy, Environmental and Economic Crises (Prof. Charles Helsley, UHM-SOEST )

by Prof. Charles Helsley (UHM-SOEST)

Thursday Apr 2, 2009, 3:30 PM → 5:00 PM Pacific/Honolulu

Rm 112 (UHM - Watanabe Hall)

The world urgently needs a new energy supply that can be brought on line quickly. Recognition of the limitations on carbon based fuels from both supply and environmental viewpoints suggests that a new supply of energy is required. The choices seem to be direct solar capture, fission, or fusion. Of these, only fusion can supply the quantities of energy needed in the time scale required. Fusion is also much more green than any other form of energy. The fusion of Deuterium and Tritium to form He and a 14 Mev neutron is a well known reaction that yield prodigious amounts of energy. Sufficient fuel is available in sea water to sustain the global energy demand for millennia. The problem is that we have been searching for a way to harness the reaction at scales of 1 GW (the size of a normal large power plant) for 6 decades and common wisdom says it is still 5 decades away. What is not generally known is that a safe practical way to harness the D-T reaction was researched in the 1970's but abandoned because it was only economically viable at a very large scale. The process is known as Heavy Ion Fusion and a fusion complex would produce about 100 GW of power rather than the 1 GW desired by the power industry. The lecture will describe the means of accomplishing the controlled ignition of DT, the means of extraction of the power and the efforts of a small California corporation to harness this reaction within the decade to produce electrical energy, heat to drive the disassociation of H2O to produce H2, and power for the desalinization of water.