Nuclear Technologies in a Sustainable Energy System

ISBN-13: 9783642819902 / Angielski / Miękka / 2011 / 330 str.

G. S. Bauer; Dr A. McDonald

Opis

In March 1981 the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) published the results of a global energy study looking fifty years into the future: Energy in a Finite World: A Global Systems Analysis (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Ballinger Publishing Co., 1981)*. Not surprisingly, this book raises almost as many questions as it answers; thus, it defines a broad range of research topics that might be taken up by IIASA or other research institutions around the world. A 25-27 May 1981 workshop at IIASA entitled "A Perspective on Adaptive Nuclear Energy Evolutions: Towards a World of Neutron Abundance" was a beginning on one of these topics; it was organized by Wolf Hafele (Kernforschungsanlage Ji. ilich, Jiilich, Federal Republic of Germany, and IIASA) and Arkadius Archie Harms (McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada). The origin of this workshop was the effort with in the IIASA energy study to explore possible "sustainable" global energy systems that might eventually replace the current "consumptive" system. In investigating the possible contributions nuclear technologies might make to a sustainable energy system, it had become clear that it is not so much particular, distinct technologies within the nuclear family that should be examined as a question of particularly advantageous configurations of mutually complementary technologies. Only when one considers exploiting a whole spectrum of arrangements of fission breeders, fusion reactors, and accelerators does the true potential of nuclear power become apparent."

Spis treści

Section One: Global Strategies and Concepts.- Energy strategies and nuclear power.- The nuclear energy continuum and its spectrum of choices.- On the internal logic of energy islands.- Section Two: Fission and Fission Breeding.- Self-sustaining systems of reactors.- Sustainable minireactors: a framework for decentralized nuclear energy systems.- Small reactors in a neutron-abundant world.- On the role and technological readiness of fast breeders and fusion—fission hybrids in the world nuclear future.- Section Three: Fusion and Dense Plasma Neutron Sources.- The tokamak as a candidate for a D—T fusion reactor.- The fusion breeder: its potential role and prospects.- Prospects of hydrogen production through fusion.- Modern electrolytic procedures for the production of hydrogen by splitting water.- The dense plasma focus as a source of neutrons.- Possible applications of a hybrid thermonuclear energy source based on a DPF device in modern energy complexes.- Section Four: Accelerator Breeding.- Accelerator spallation reactors for breeding fissile fuel and transmuting fission products.- Accelerator breeder applications.- The FRG project for a high-power spallation neutron source for fundamental research.- On the need for accelerator breeders and fission converter reactors.- Section Five: Handling the Waste.- Future processing of spent reactor fuels.- A proposed concept for actinide-waste transmutation.- Transmutation of radioactive wastes: an assessment.- Section Six: Reflections and Summary.- Quick is beautiful.- Panel discussion.- Author index.