- #1
smartalek86
As someone who has had an interest in the potential outcome of various scientific en-devours, I have weighed potential outcomes of things that interest people to be good to potential outcomes they may not have yet seen as being bad. I wonder if anyone has asked the questions about how our potential future source of clean energy that may turn out to be bad? First I Would say i have read some peer reviewed papers about potential negative effects and will reference them bellow, but I point out they are based on current concepts of the solution. The concern I have with fusion power is that if a way of making it reasonably energy dense and efficient for both DT and DD fusion there is no excluding the possibility that the technology can be used to make fissile material.
I have approached this question as a simple thought experiment, if there is a fusion device/reactor that can contain DT/DD fusion as a dense sphere of plasma, a way may be found to place fertile material around the region of plasma where fusion occurs. It could be placed in diluted form, mixed with another metal or as a fluoride salt for example and cycled through, to remove irradiated material that has been transmuted. The present status quo is that fertile material is difficult to make or obtain, and this prevents proliferation, but if fusion power can provide a rich source of neutrons, the greatest obstacles to proliferation could be removed. Based on simple calculation I find that a 1GW source of DD fusion(optimally) would be able to irradiate enough U-238 to make 7-8kg of Pu-239 in about a day, at between 50% efficiency. On more realistic calculations, it’s about a month, since fission waste would cause problems, and provide too much energy feedback.
I wonder what other would have to say to my conclusion?
Not that sovereign states do or don't or won’t attempt clandestine fissile material production anyway, what about private clandestine fissile material production. There are some natural road blocks, obtaining fertile material is not very easy, once you start irradiating the material, 20%.> may undergo fission from high energy neutrons. But otherwise, at 8kg a month at the low end isn't good., ! What do you guys think, both as people and as scientist about how institutions would react to this?
http://web.mit.edu/fusion-fission/HybridsPubli/Fusion_Proliferation_Risks.pdf
I have approached this question as a simple thought experiment, if there is a fusion device/reactor that can contain DT/DD fusion as a dense sphere of plasma, a way may be found to place fertile material around the region of plasma where fusion occurs. It could be placed in diluted form, mixed with another metal or as a fluoride salt for example and cycled through, to remove irradiated material that has been transmuted. The present status quo is that fertile material is difficult to make or obtain, and this prevents proliferation, but if fusion power can provide a rich source of neutrons, the greatest obstacles to proliferation could be removed. Based on simple calculation I find that a 1GW source of DD fusion(optimally) would be able to irradiate enough U-238 to make 7-8kg of Pu-239 in about a day, at between 50% efficiency. On more realistic calculations, it’s about a month, since fission waste would cause problems, and provide too much energy feedback.
I wonder what other would have to say to my conclusion?
Not that sovereign states do or don't or won’t attempt clandestine fissile material production anyway, what about private clandestine fissile material production. There are some natural road blocks, obtaining fertile material is not very easy, once you start irradiating the material, 20%.> may undergo fission from high energy neutrons. But otherwise, at 8kg a month at the low end isn't good., ! What do you guys think, both as people and as scientist about how institutions would react to this?
http://web.mit.edu/fusion-fission/HybridsPubli/Fusion_Proliferation_Risks.pdf
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