Fusion: Key issues

Full text: Controlled Fusion may provide mankind with an inexhaustible source of energy. Several highly attractive features are intrinsic to this way of energy production: a high safety level due to the impossibility of non-controlled reaction; low original and induced activities of the fuel, waste and construction materials, the possibility to place power stations close to megalopolises, and negligible terrorist opportunities at fusion enterprises. More than fifty years have been spent by researchers in many countries before the International Fusion Community decided this year to build the first International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor - ITER - in Cadarache (France). The reason for such a long development is the very complicated behaviour of high-temperature plasma - a special state of matter that allows nuclei of hydrogen to react, setting free a huge amount of energy due to mass loss. Basic and applied research in high-temperature plasma has influenced a significant number of areas in Science and Technology. There are two approaches to Controlled Fusion based on magnetic and inertial confinement. The magnetic confinement approach at present seems to be closer to the fusion energy production stage. The idea of the tokamak device invented at the Kurchatov Institute fifty years ago turned out to be very productive and allowed us to realize the fusion of Deuterium and Tritium under conditions very close to breakeven. We know a lot about the tokamak plasma today. However, new advances are foreseen to be achieved in contemporary and future experiments. The main activity is shifting now to the problem of plasma-wall interaction, low activation materials and technologies activating resources in an industrial reactor, which would be of commercial interest. Intensive work in this field is foreseen, and the Fast Track Programme formulated by the European Union emphasizes the necessity of promptly solving basic problems of fusion energy production. After the construction of ITER within the next 10 years, we expect that DEMO will start to operate in about 25 years as a demonstration reactor and that in the middle of the century the first industrial power station will be built. Other devices like lasers and Z-pinches may demonstrate their applicability for fusion energy production within the next few years. The competition between different approaches to fusion seems to be a source of progress in this field. International collaboration in fusion has a long-term history, and positive achievements should be continued in the future. I believe that an International Organization will be created to control fusion-energy production. This step will allow us to reduce the risks of unapproved technology dissemination and proliferation. (author)