Innovative Nuclear Energy Systems and the Future of Nuclear Power

There is a renewed interest in nuclear power worldwide. The interest is sparked by concerns about global warming and security of energy supplies. In addition to the growing interest in building more reactors in countries that already have nuclear power, future demands for nuclear power are likely to include applications in countries that do not presently use nuclear power and applications beyond large-scale electricity generation. This paper will discuss some of the characteristics that future reactors will need to have to meet such demands, as well as other measures required to facilitate a nuclear renaissance. In addition, the emergence of new international nuclear initiatives and their potential roles will be described.     

Electric Power from Renewable Energy: Realities for Policy-Makers

Current wind and photovoltaic technologies are incapable of providing the all-renewable electric power future that many have envisioned, because of the inherent mismatch between their unpredictable, intermittent nature and society's demands for electric power on demand. Paths for using these technologies are in combination with electric power storage or as fuel-savers with fossil-fueled power plants. In a cloudless world, photovoltaic costs double if power is needed at night, and when there are clouds, costs escalate dramatically. Electric power from wind turbines varies as the cube of the wind velocity, which can fluctuate from zero to high values over short periods. To make competent national energy policy, the public and policymakers need an unbiased, authoritative analysis of the maximum possible, long-term contributions of renewables to U.S. electric power needs.     

Forecasts for the 21st Century

The population of the world is increasing, mainly in the developing world, and is projected to saturate within about 100 years at up to twice the present population of 6 billion people [1]. Studies [2,3,4] show that, historically, the population growth rate has varied inversely as the annual per capita energy use in most parts of the developing world, where per capita energy use is typically less than 1 tonne of oil equivalent energy per year. However, in areas with more than 2 to 3 tonnes of oil equivalent of energy per year per person the growth rate is around zero. If this trend continues, a stable world population will require, allowing for energy efficiency improvements, some 2 to 3 times the present annual energy use. There is an abundance of energy in the world both exploited and potential to meet this need—fossil, fission, and renewables—but it is not evenly distributed, some is costly, and there are issues of environmental pollution in present use, that may limit use. Fusion energy is a potential longer-term source with attractive environmental features. It is the least developed energy option and still faces a challenging development path, but there are many of areas of the world that would benefit hugely from its deployment from the latter part of the 21st century onward, and it is important to consider how it might be deployed. Most fusion power plant options considered today show an economy of scale, owing to the fixed distance needed for shielding fusion neutrons, tritium breeding and handling the heat loads. One interesting approach is to use the power plant to co-produce electricity and hydrogen to facilitate the introduction of lower cost-of-electricity, multi-gigawatt power plants [5].     

Multilateral Assessment of the Fast Reactor System as a Component of the Future Sustainable Nuclear Energy and Paths for the System Deployment

The paper reviews main findings of the Joint Assessment Study on a Nuclear Energy System (NES) based on a Closed Nuclear Fuel Cycle with Fast Reactors (CNFC-FRs) that was performed within the IAEA project INPRO.     

Nuclear energy for transportation: Paths through electricity, hydrogen and liquid fuels

The transportation sector consumes about a quarter of final energy in Japan and worldwide, and presently most of the energy is supplied by petroleum. For global environment and resources, it is important to seek possibilities of replacing a substantial part of the transportation energy by nuclear energy.

For supplying nuclear energy to the transportation sector, investigated are the paths through such ‘energy carriers’ as electricity, hydrogen and synthetic liquid fuels, to the means of transportation such as automobiles. These energy carriers can be produced from nuclear energy, by itself or synergistically with other primary energies like fossil fuels or biomass.

In this paper, possibilities and impacts of these energy carriers to power transportation means are reviewed, and measures and tasks to supply these energy carriers from nuclear energy are examined.

In converting the primary energies into the energy carriers, the synergistic process may be more advantageous than the individual process. Some of the exploratory processes to produce synthetic liquid fuels from fossil fuels and nuclear energy are presented.     

A Plan for the Development of Fusion Energy

This is the final report of a panel set up by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (FESAC) in response to a charge letter dated September 10, 2002 from Dr. Ray Orbach, Director of the DOE's Office of Science. In that letter, Dr. Orbach asked FESAC to develop a plan with the end goal of the start of operation of a demonstration power plant in approximately 35 years. This report, submitted March 5, 2003, presents such a plan, leading to commercial application of fusion energy by mid-century. The plan is derived from the necessary features of a demonstration fusion power plant and from the time scale defined by President Bush. It identifies critical milestones, key decision points, needed major facilities and required budgets. The report also responds to a request from DOE to FESAC to describe what new or upgraded fusion facilities will best serve our purposes over a time frame of the next twenty years.     

The case for the fusion hybrid

The use of nuclear fusion to produce fuel for nuclear fission power stations is discussed in the context of a crucial need for future energy options. The fusion hybrid is first considered as an element in the future of nuclear fission power to provide long term assurance of adequate fuel supplies for both breeder and convertor reactors. Generic differences in neutronic characteristics lead to a fuel production potential of fusion-fission hybrid systems which is significantly greater than that obtainable with fission systems alone. Furthermore, cost benefit studies show a variety of scenarios in which the hybrid offers sufficient potential to justify development costs ranging in the tens of billions of dollars. The hybrid is then considered as an element in the ultimate development of fusion electric power. The hybrid offers a near term application of fusion where experience with the requisite technologies can be derived as a vital step in mapping a credible route to eventual commercial feasibility of pure fusion systems. Finally, the criteria for assessment of future energy options are discussed with prime emphasis on the need for rational comparison of alternatives. This approach is contrasted with the dual standard too often used in judging the risks and benefits of nuclear power where, for example, rather minor radiological effects are highlighted while much larger exposures to radiation from medical x-rays, airplane travel, color television sets, etc., are ignored. It is concluded that the fusion hybrid deserves a prominent place among new energy resources but that early attention to insure an adequately informed public is a vital ingredient in assuring reasonable prospects of success.     

Future Detector Needs for High Energy Physics

High energy physics, as exemplified by the SSC, requires the analysis of increasingly complex events which occur at ever higher event rates. The SSC detectors embody an order of magnitude increase in cost and complexity. Research and development for a 500 M$ detector with 500K data channels must procede in step with accelerator design. Up to a decade of R&D at 1% per year (5M$) invested should be expected. This implies the close involvement of industry.     

核能在新时期国家能源可持续发展战略中的地位和作用(英文)

从国家能源安全与能源可持续发展的角度论述了核能的优势地位和作用,及核能在满足能源和电力安全供应需求、缓解生态环境污染和降低温室气体排放等方面的作用。讲述了中国能源安全和可持续发展面临的挑战和严峻形势,指出发展核能是中国优化能源结构的客观要求,是我国未来能源及电力安全供应的重要保证。阐明了发展核能是实现中国能源与电力可持续发展的必然选择,核能利用符合循环经济的原则。研究分析了核电发展对中国未来生态环境保护的贡献,并对中国核能发展提出了一些建议。     

Report of the Integrated Program Planning Activity for the U.S. Department of Energy Fusion Energy Sciences Program

This report of the Integrated Program Planning Activity (IPPA) has been prepared in response to a recommendation by the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board that, Given the complex nature of the fusion effort, an integrated program planning process is an absolute necessity. We therefore undertook this activity to integrate the various elements of the program, to improve communication and performance accountability across the program, and to show the interconnectedness and interdependency of the diverse parts of the national Fusion Energy Sciences Program. This report is based on the September 1999 Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee's (FESAC) report Priorities and Balance within the Fusion Energy Sciences Program. In its December 5, 2000, letter to the Director of the Office of Science, the FESAC reaffirmed the validity of the September 1999 report and stated that the IPPA presents a framework and process to guide the achievement of the 5-year goals listed in the 1999 report. The report also outlines a process for establishing a database for the fusion research program that will indicate how each research element fits into the overall program. This database will also include near-term milestones associated with each research element and will facilitate assessments of the balance within the program at different levels.     

Characterization for Fusion Candidate Vanadium Alloys

This paper summarizes recent achievements in the characterization of candidate vanadium alloys obtained for fusion in the framework of the Japan-China Core University Program.National Institute for Fusion Science (NIFS) has a program of fabricating high-purity V-4Cr-4Ti alloys. The resulting products (NIFS-HEAT-1,2), were characterized by various research groups in the world including Chinese partners. South Western Institute of Physics (SWIP) fabricated a new V-4Cr-4Ti alloy (SWIP-Heat), and carried out a comparative evaluation of hydrogen embrittlement of NIFS-HEATs and SWIP-Heat. The tensile test of hydrogen-doped alloys showed that the NIFS-HEAT maintained the ductility to relatively high hydrogen levels.The comparison of the data with those of previous studies suggested that the reduced oxygen level in the NIFS-HEATs should be responsible for the increased resistance to hydrogen embrittlement.Based on the chemical analysis data of NIFS-HEATs and SWIP-Heats, neutron-induced activation was analyzed in Institute of Plasma Physics (IPP-CAS) as a function of cooling time after the use in the fusion first wall. The results showed that the low level of Co dominates the activity up to 50 years followed by a domination of Nb or Nb and A1 in the respective alloys. It was suggested that reduction of Co and Nb, both of which are thought to have been introduced via cross-contamination into the alloys from the molds used should be crucial for reducing further the activation.     

我国今后新建核电站若干安全问题的考虑

根据国内外经验 ,提出了我国今后新建核电站的若干安全要求 ,包括安全目标、决定论方法和概率论方法、严重事故、安全壳及其系统、氢的控制和停堆状态下的安全问题     

Scientific Challenges,Opportunities and Priorities for the U.S. Fusion Energy Sciences Program

In October 2003, Dr. Raymond Orbach, Director of the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, issued a charge to the Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (FESAC) “to identify the major science and technology issues that need to be addressed, recommend how to organize campaigns to address these issues, and recommend the priority order for these campaigns.” The sections in this report document the results of the Panel’s work. The first two sections describe the concepts of the overarching themes, topical scientific questions, and campaigns. The next six sections (Sections 3–8) describe in detail the six scientific campaigns. Section 9 describes some important enabling research activities necessary for the campaigns. Sections 10–12 describe the overarching themes, which provide a crosscutting perspective of the activities in the six campaigns. Finally, the Panel’s recommendations are set forth in Section 13. The charge letter to the panel is provided as Appendix A; the FESAC response letter is provided as Appendix D.     

Fusion Power: Looking to the Future

Presentations that were made at a Fusion Power Associates symposium, Fusion Power: Looking to the Future, are summarized. The topics included overview and personal perspectives, status of ITER, stellarators, inertial confinement and innovative concepts. Also included is a summary of work on laser fusion at Osaka University.     

Report of the FEAC Inertial Fusion Energy Review Panel: July 1996

This report presents the results and recommendations of the U. S. Department of Energy Fusion Energy Advisory Committee (FEAC) review of its Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) program. The subpanel charged with the review was chaired by John Sheffield of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The FEAC, to which the subpanel reported, was chaired by Robert Conn of the University of California at San Diego.     

直接充电式核电池能量转换效率提高研究

通过分析直接充电式核电池的结构和工作原理,给出了直接充电式核电池等效电路。在此基础上,得到了直接充电式核电池的充电方程,及用于计算在不同负载阻值情况下输出功率的简化模型。简化模型最大理论输出功率及伏安特性曲线与Warren F.Windle实验符合很好。考虑到直接充电式核电池能量转换过程,提出了提高能量转换效率的途径:选择合适的负载,增大充电电流,并对影响充电电流的因素（源效率、几何因子和二次电子）进行了探讨和优化,以增大充电电流。     

Report of the First Fusion Energy Sciences Committee of Visitors

This is the final report of a Committee of Visitors (COV) set up by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee (FESAC) in response to a charge letter from DOE Office of Science Director Raymond Orbach (Appendix A). In that letter, Dr. Orbach asked FESAC to assess matters pertaining to program decisions for the DOE's fusion theory and computation programs. This report, submitted to FESAC on March 29, 2004, and subsequently approved by them (Appendix B), presents FESACs response to that charge.     

对我国核电产业发展战略和政策的建议

我国核电产业尚处在起步向小批量建设过渡的阶段。由于发展核电产业是新形势上保持和提高国家核能力的 以需要,并且有助于下个世纪我国的能源安全,有助于减轻我国在环境保护方面的压力,因此今后政策需要促进核电产业在我国的进一步发展。在中国目前的经济环境中,核电走完全商业化发展的的道路有困难, 只能作为一个国家政策重点扶持的产业才有可能发展起来。