Fusion Breeding for Mid-Century Sustainable Power
On May 13, 2014, the Journal of Fusion Energy published a very important editorial written by RSI consultant Dr. Wallace Manheimer. The editorial makes the case that the best course of action for fusion energy is fusion breeding, using fusion neutrons to breed nuclear fuel for use in conventional nuclear reactors. The Open Access article provides an extensive review of the state-of-art for fusion research and explains the necessity of changing the current focus of study. The paper has been thoroughly reviewed by six of the top scientists in plasma physics, fusion, and nuclear energy.
The link to the paper follows:
Biography
Dr. Wallace Manheimer received undergraduate and graduate degrees at MIT. From 1967 through 1970 he was an assistant professor in the physics department of MIT. He was with the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) from 1970 until 2005. He served as Senior Scientist for Fundamental Plasma Processes at the ST-16 level. His interests and expertise include principally plasma physics, fluid dynamics, electron beams, radar systems, and microwave tubes. He currently supports beam-plasma modeling for the NIKE laser fusion efforts.
This image: An artist’s conception of the plasma configuration and some of the magnetic field coils of the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator taken from its web site (www.ipp.mgp.de).