Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Some Observations on Future Directions in Fusion Energy Research

  • Original Research
  • Published:
Journal of Fusion Energy Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Over the years the author has written, coordinated, or contributed to numerous reviews of fusion energy. In revisiting them, he is encouraged by the tremendous progress that has been made across the board. Nevertheless, while he believes that a viable fusion reactor could be made in both magnetic and inertial fusion energy, he doesn’t think the best approach has yet been identified in either area. Also there remain a number of critical, hardly-explored areas. The author identifies three key issues. Finally, he comments briefly on all the major confinement approaches.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. J. Sheffield, Status of the Tokamak Program. Proc. IEEE 69, 885 (1981)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. J. Shefffield, The physics of magnetic fusion reactors. Rev. Mod. Phys. 66, 1015 (1994)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. FESAC, Opportunities in the fusion energy sciences program (1999), http://www.ofes.doe.gov/more_html/FESAC/FES_all.pdf

  4. National Academies, An assessment of the prospects for inertial fusion energy (2013), http://sites.nationalacademies.org/BPA/BPA_058425

  5. J.R. McNally Jr, Physics of fusion fuel cycles. Nucl. Technol. Fusion 2, 9 (1982)

    Google Scholar 

  6. F. Najmabadi et al., ARIES fusion reactor studies bibliography, http://aries.ucsd.edu/ARIES/DOCS/bib.shtml

  7. J. Sheffield, S. Milora, Generic magnetic fusion reactor revisited. Fusion Sci. Technol. (2015, accepted)

  8. Y. Chen, U. Fischer, P. Pereslavstev, F. Wasastjerna, The EU power plant conceptual study—neutronic design analysis for near term and advanced reactor models, Report FZKA 6763, Forschungszentrum Karslruhe (2003)

  9. J. Sheffield, D. Spong, Generic Stellarator-like magnetic fusion reactor. Fusion Sci. Technol. (2015, accepted)

  10. J. Sheffield, M. Sawan, Deuterium-fueled power plants with tritium suppression. Fusion Sci. Techol. 53, 780 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  11. J. Sheffield, R.A. Dory et al., Cost assessment of a generic magnetic fusion reactor. Fusion Technol. 9, 2 (1986)

    Google Scholar 

  12. J. Menard et al., Prospects for pilot plants based on the tokamak, spherical tokamak and stellarator. Nucl. Fusion 51, 103014 (2011)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  13. M. Gasparotto, C. Baylard, The W7-X Team, Wendelstein 7-X—status of the project and commissioning planning. Fusion Eng. Des. 89(9–10), 2121–2127 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. F. Najmabadi et al., Overview of the ARIES-CS compact stellarator fusion power plant. Fusion Sci. Technol. 54, 655 (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  15. O. Motojima, K. Akaishi et al., Progress summary of LHD engineering design and construction. Nucl. Fusion 40, 599 (2000)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  16. Talks at the 2013 Annual fusion power associates meeting, by G. Wurden (LANL), T. Richardson (General Fusion), and T. Jarboe (U. Washington), http://fire.pppl.gov/fpa_annual_meet.html#2013

  17. J. Slough, G. Votroubek, C. Pihl, Creation of a high-temperature plasma through merging and compression of supersonic field reversed configuration plasmoids. Nucl. Fusion 51, 5 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. M. Tuszewski et al., A new high performance field reversed configuration operating regime in the C-2 device. in 53rd Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Plasma Physics. Physics of Plasmas 19(5) (American Institute of Physics, Salt Lake City, UT, 2012)

  19. Laser Inertial Fusion Energy, LIFE, https://life.llnl.gov/

Download references

Acknowledgments

The author appreciates the helpful comments of Michael Mauel, Stanley Milora, and the reviewer.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to John Sheffield.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Sheffield, J. Some Observations on Future Directions in Fusion Energy Research. J Fusion Energ 35, 107–110 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10894-015-0022-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10894-015-0022-5

Keywords

Navigation