Last Friday's report from the United Nations confirms the huge danger from our continued dependence on fossil fuel. But one simple thing can break this dependence. It needs to be cheaper to produce non-carbonenergy than it is by digging up coal, gas or oil. Once this happens, most of the coal, gas and oil will automatically be left undisturbed in the ground.

To make non-carbon energy become competitive is a major scientific challenge, not unlike the challenge of developing the atom bomb or sending a man to the moon. Science rose to those challenges because a clear goal and timetable were set and enough public money was provided for the research. These programmes had high political profile and public visibility. They attracted many of the best minds of the age.

The issue of climate change and energy is even more important and it needs the same treatment. In most countries, there is at present too little public spending on non-carbon energy research. Instead, we need a major international research effort, with a clear goal and a clear timetable.

What should it focus on? There will always be many sources of non-carbon energy – nuclear fission, hydropower, geothermal, wind, nuclear fusion (possibly) and solar. But nuclear fission and hydropower have been around for many years. Nuclear is essential but faces political obstacles and there are physical limits to hydropower. Nuclear fusion remains uncertain. And, while wind can play a big role in the UK, in many countries its application is limited. So there is no hope of completely replacing fossil fuel without a major contribution from the power of the sun.

Moreover, the sun sends energy to the Earth equal to about 5,000 times our total energy needs. It is inconceivable that we cannot collect enough of this energy for our needs, at a reasonable cost. The price of photovoltaic energy is falling at 10% a year, and in Germany a serious amount of unsubsidised, solar electricity is already being added to the grid. In California, forward contracts for solar energy are becoming competitive with other fuels and they will become more so, as technology progresses.

But time is desperately short and there are two even bigger scientific challenges. The first is to make solar power available on a 24-hour basis, when the sun shines only part of the day and can be obscured by cloud. This requires a major breakthrough in the storage of electricity.

The second is to reduce the cost of transmitting electricity from areas of high luminosity and low land value to the major population centres of the world. Better storage requires major breakthroughs in the science of batteries; better transmission requires new materials that are much better at conducting electricity without loss of power. In all these cases, the solution requires new disruptive technologies.

So here is our proposal. There should be a world sunpower programme of research, development and demonstration. The goal would be by 2025 to deliver solar electricity at scale to the grid at a cost below the cost of fossil fuel. All countries would be invited to participate. Those who did would commit, in their own countries, to major new programmes of research, internationally co-ordinated, and to share their findings for the benefit of the world.

Each country would have the goal of demonstrating bulk supply of unsubsidised solar electricity in scale to the grid by 2025. At the world level, the target would be for solar electricity to be at least 10% of total energy supply by 2025 and 25% by 2030. Countries' contributions to this target would be closely watched.

The programme would be truly broad. It would cover non-grid solar as well as grid electricity. And it would be of value to wind electricity as well, through improving storage and transmission.

Unlike fossil fuel, solar produces no pollution and no miners get killed. Unlike nuclear fission, it produces no radioactive waste. It harnesses the power of the sun, which is the ultimate source of most energy on Earth. And it can strike the imagination of a people and therefore of their politicians.

A central role of governments is to promote new public knowledge. Surely the most important knowledge of all is how to preserve human life as we know it. In 2015, the nations of the world will meet to agree their commitments on climate change. Whatever else they agree, they should go for a major sunpower programme.

Sir David King will be the foreign secretary's special representative on climate change from 1 October. Lord Layard is former founder-director of the Centre for Economic Performance at the LSE.

Source:  theguardian.com

Ministers representing many of the world's main economic powers met on 6 September 2013 to show their support for one of the world’s most ambitious scientific experiments – a nuclear fusion reactor that will operate at temperatures ten times hotter than the core of the sun.

Representatives from the seven regions that are backing ITER – the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor – met for only the second time at the site of the planned reactor in southern France in September to underline the importance of the project.

‘Not to invest in fusion would be a big mistake,’ said Günther Oettinger, the European Commissioner for Energy. ‘We have oil for the next 20, 30, or maybe 40 years; but nobody knows what will happen at the end of the century. We have to switch and we need to invest in new, innovative energy generating technology for our children.’

ITER aims to produce energy through the same nuclear reaction that powers the sun. But, while the centre of the sun burns at 15 million degrees Celsius, the hydrogen inside the ITER reactor will be heated to some 150 million degrees Celsius.

At that temperature, electrons are ripped off individual atoms to form plasma, where nuclei float in a sea of electrons.

The high temperature means the plasma cannot be allowed to touch the sides of the reactor. So it will be suspended amid a vacuum in a toroid – a doughnut shape – using some of the world’s most powerful magnets.

‘The magnetic field will put very high mechanical stress on the supporting structure,’ said fusion physicist Dr Osama Motojima, ITER's Director-General. ‘So we developed an engineering design almost close to the limit of the material.’

Vast rewards 

The potential rewards of the project are vast: fusion-based power would solve much of the world's energy needs without the dangers of traditional nuclear reactors. 

But the difficulty of the technology means it will take time. ITER is aiming to start the most important test reactions in 2027. Success then will mean simply that the principle has worked so that plans can begin to construct commercial reactors to supply electricity grids. These might not come on line till 2040 or later.

Work began in 2010 on the 42-hectare site in Saint Paul-lez-Durance, in the hills of Provence, France, where China, the EU, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States are collaborating on ITER.

So far, a five-storey headquarters building and an assembly building have been built, and the foundations have been prepared for the main reactor. 

Less hazardous

The reactive materials used in fusion are less hazardous than those for traditional fission reactors. Fission occurs when a large nucleus splits, giving off energy, and it normally uses radioactive forms of uranium, which pose a threat if the reaction leaks. 

The fusion reactions being worked on consist of two small nuclei – of hydrogen – which collide to form helium, giving off energy in the process. Though some of the hydrogen used will be radioactive – the reaction needs heavier isotopes than the most common form of hydrogen – it will be easier to store and manage than uranium. Moreover, only tiny amounts will be needed because of the huge amounts of energy given off in the reactions.

However, mastery of nuclear fusion has proved elusive for half a century. Fusion reactions have been achieved in other test facilities, such as JET, the Joint European Torus, in the United Kingdom. But these runs have lasted just a few seconds.

While JET almost achieved ‘break-even’ – when a fusion reaction produces as much energy as was needed to set it off – it has not produced commercially viable amounts. ITER's goal is to sustain a fusion reaction for several minutes: for 50 MW of input power, it's aiming to produce 500 MW of output, enough to show that the technology is practical.

The public and scientific community is more supportive than in the past over the chances of success, says Motojima, whose career in plasma physics dates back to the 1970s. A Japanese fusion device he managed from 1998, the Large Helical Device Experiment (LHD), was greeted at the start with widespread scepticism, he said.

‘When we started to build the LHD in Japan, more than 50 % of people said, “It’s crazy, it’s not possible”,’ he said. ‘But now, nobody is saying it’s not possible here. That’s encouraging.’

If it is successful, the international participants will take the technology and try to put it to commercial use. South Korea – which, like Japan, has almost no fossil fuel resources – even has a fusion law that authorises an annual budget for research, currently about EUR 185 million.

So instead of each country pooling funds and the project being carried out centrally, 90 % of the equipment is being contributed in-kind, with each country assigned to build certain pieces. Roads, bridges and roundabouts have been adapted to form a 104 kilometre route for components arriving by sea before they are assembled like a high-tech jigsaw puzzle.

In the building phase, each step has to wait for a previous one to be finished – but these steps are sometimes held up by the arrangements for contract awards in the participating countries. ‘Intensive effort and innovative methods will be required to meet ... the challenge of staying within a tight but realistic schedule while containing costs,’ said Oettinger.

The EU is providing 45 % of the funding for ITER. Though most other participants offered firm commitments, the US representative, Edmund Synakowski, Associate Director of Science for Fusion Energy Sciences at the US Department of Energy, emphasised that Congress would first have to approve continued US funding. A decision is expected next year.

During the meeting, the ministerial representatives reaffirmed the significance of the ITER experiment as an important step towards fusion energy, and underlined the fact that the project is also defining a new model for international scientific collaboration.

Source: HORIZON

On 26 September, the first group of twenty students were awarded their FuseNet European Fusion Master’s / Doctorate certificates in a ceremony at Europe’s leading fusion experiment JET at Culham in the UK. The certificates are a recognition of excellence in fusion science and technology, and can be awarded to European MSc and PhD students who fulfil academic criteria that have been jointly established by universities and fusion research centres throughout Europe.

This first batch of certificates were presented to the nominated students by the EFDA leader Dr Francesco Romanelli, the chair of the Academic Council of FuseNet Prof. Ambrogio Fasoli and the chairman of FuseNet Prof. Niek Lopes Cardozo. Afterwards the students were treated to a spectacular ‘after hours’ tour of JET – including access to the torus hall itself.

The European Fusion Education Network FuseNet – with over 40 members including universities, research institutes and companies that are active in the development of fusion energy – supports and coordinates the education and training of the ‘ITER generation’ of fusion scientists and engineers. It’s aim is to ensure a core of highly skilled scientists and engineers for future fusion devices – most notably the international successor to JET and stepping stone to fusion power plants, ITER. Prof. Niek Lopes Cardozo, FuseNet chair explains: ‘The ceremony and JET visit are our way of showing these students that we highly appreciate the effort they have put into their studies of fusion; that we recognize the high level of expertise they have acquired and that it is young, smart and dedicated people like these that are going to make fusion energy happen’.

From now on, students can continuously apply for a European Fusion Master or Doctorate Certificate through the FuseNet website (www.fusenet.eu). Applications will be evaluated twice per year.

Source: EFDA

ITER is often described as the biggest international research collaboration in the field of energy bringing together half of the world’s population and 80% of the global GDP. A complex and ambitious project pushing our imagination to its limits and inviting us to explore if fusion energy can be a viable energy source in tomorrow’s energy mix. 

To reach the holy grail of energy, as some have called fusion, scientists and engineers need to work hand in hand with industry and SMEs to manufacture the ITER components and develop the necessary appetite and expertise to invest in fusion technology. 
In 2012 the value of the energy sector was is in the range of $6 trillion. Currently, in the EU the energy sector exceeds a turnover of about 885 billion EUR and keeps more than 22,000 enterprises afloat, which employ over 1.2 million people. The business potential of the energy market is vast and the opportunity for growth is clear. 

So how is ITER unlocking Europe’s business potential?
To answer this question we traveled to five countries and interviewed 14 representatives from industry and SMEs, laboratories and senior policy figures from the fusion community. We asked them to describe the potential they see in ITER and the direct benefits stemming from Europe’s participation to the project. 
Professor Henrik Bindslev, F4E’s Director, set the tone by describing the unique character of the project and the spillover effects spreading in the areas of knowledge, jobs and growth. Similarly, Professor Osamu Motojima, Director General of ITER International Organization, elaborated on the new technologies that industry would acquire through its participation and the expertise that future generations of scientists will develop through their involvement. 

In our first clip we interviewed the Industry Liaison Officers, the business satellites of the ITER project in each European country, and asked them to give a their opinion on the business potential of the project. Their message was strong and clear: ITER means business opportunities and Europe’s industry should grab the opportunity to be involved. 

Sue O’Neill, Ireland’s ILO, highlighted the growing potential of fusion industry and Dan Mistry, UK ILO, brought fusion a step closer to the market by reminding companies of the opportunities in the field of conventional engineering. The scale of the project requires the contribution and collaboration of many sectors. Sabine Portier, French ILO, explained that “ITER offers the possibility to build business partnerships” which will pave the way to new markets. Industry and SMEs from different countries have to learn to form consortia and compete in order to deliver high-end components in a competitive rate. Kurt Ebbinghaus argued that “a project like ITER will improve the capability of industry in terms of engineering and fabrication […] and create spinoffs for other business.” Søren Bang Korsholm, Denmark’s ILO, encouraged industry and SMEs to see themselves as legitimate partners in this project, a thought which was shared by Christian Dierick, Belgium’s ILO, who stated that “ITER is not a project only for big players.” 

In the second clip, business representatives had the opportunity to express their views on the direct economic benefits stemming from their participation to ITER. Dr. Michael Peininger, Research Instruments, explained how cutting edge requirements pushed companies a step further. Similarly, Paolo Bonifazi, Walter Tosto, called ITER “the booster” which accelerated the pace of progress in his company. From SENER, Maria Rosa Sacristian, stressed the multi-disciplinary character of the project and the way it has helped companies to identify new markets. Jean-Claude Cercassi, CNIM, elaborated on the “new processes, jobs and growth” that have been created together with the development of new tooling which will prove useful in other operations. Aldo Pizzuto, ENEA, highlighted the role of fusion laboratories in the project and their capacity to generate new technologies that are not yet available to industry. Linda Hedegaard, Site Facility, saw plenty of opportunities for SMEs too through their participation as subcontractors in large contracts. The successful partnership between small and large players was also addressed by Maria Teresa Domiguez, Empresarios Agrupados, who acknowledged that thanks to ITER this new international way of doing business emerged in this field of energy.

Source: F4E

The dream of igniting a self-sustained fusion reaction with high yields of energy, a feat likened to creating a miniature star on Earth, is getting closer to becoming reality, according the authors of a new review article in the journal Physics of Plasmas

Researchers at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) engaged in a collaborative project led by the Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, report that while there is at least one significant obstacle to overcome before achieving the highly stable, precisely directed implosion required for ignition, they have met many of the demanding challenges leading up to that goal since experiments began in 2010.

The project is a multi-institutional effort including partners from the University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics, General Atomics, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratory, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

To reach ignition (defined as the point at which the fusion reaction produces more energy than is needed to initiate it), the NIF focuses 192 laser beams simultaneously in billionth-of-a-second pulses inside a cryogenically cooled hohlraum (from the German word for "hollow room"), a hollow cylinder the size of a pencil eraser. Within the hohlraum is a ball-bearing-size capsule containing two hydrogen isotopes, deuterium and tritium (D-T). The unified lasers deliver 1.8 megajoules of energy and 500 terawatts of power—1,000 times more than the United States uses at any one moment—to the hohlraum creating an "X-ray oven" which implodes the D-T capsule to temperatures and pressures similar to those found at the center of the sun.

"What we want to do is use the X-rays to blast away the outer layer of the capsule in a very controlled manner, so that the D-T pellet is compressed to just the right conditions to initiate the fusion reaction," explained John Edwards, NIF associate director for inertial confinement fusion and high-energy-density science. "In our new review article, we report that the NIF has met many of the requirements believed necessary to achieve ignition—sufficient X-ray intensity in the hohlraum, accurate energy delivery to the target and desired levels of compression—but that at least one major hurdle remains to be overcome, the premature breaking apart of the capsule."

In the article, Edwards and his colleagues discuss how they are using diagnostic tools developed at NIF to determine likely causes for the problem. "In some ignition tests, we measured the scattering of neutrons released and found different strength signals at different spots around the D-T capsule," Edwards said. "This indicates that the shell's surface is not uniformly smooth and that in some places, it's thinner and weaker than in others. In other tests, the spectrum of X-rays emitted indicated that the D-T fuel and capsule were mixing too much—the results of hydrodynamic instability—and that can quench the ignition process."

Edwards said that the team is concentrating its efforts on NIF to define the exact nature of the instability and use the knowledge gained to design an improved, sturdier capsule. Achieving that milestone, he said, should clear the path for further advances toward laboratory ignition.

Source: phys.org