NEWSLETTER
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UNITED KINGDOM Association NEWSLETTER |
| No 150 | March 1998 |
After a slow start due to trips abroad our first event of 1998 is a site visit to JET Joint Undertaking in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. Despite its name it is nothing to do with petroleum but is in fact a research project examining a cleaner and longer lasting form of energy production.
Our hosts propose to show us a video and presentation outlining the project. They will be supplying morning tea prior to a tour around the facility. Everyone is welcome but we need to know numbers by Saturday 14th.
We are not sure how long the visit will last but hope to be able to take our hosts to a local hostelry for lunch and more informal discussion of the project. We understand that there is no charge for the visit but we may ask for contributions towards our hosts lunches.
I have included below a copy of a press release sent out late last year covering the main features of the project and by way of explanation have included a schematic of a Fusion Reactor. If you have any further queries please come along and ask the experts.
If you are lost or have any queries regarding the visit please contact :
Robert Minchin phone 01235 464 637 work or 01865 407 072 home.
JET (the Joint European Torus) is the flagship of the Community Fusion Programme which aims at developing magnetic confinement fusion as a new, clean source of safe and environmentally-friendly energy to provide abundant power for the future of mankind.
There is a workforce of about 700 from all the EU countries plus Switzerland. The annual budget is 78M ECU (approx. £54M).
Construction of JET started in 1978 and it has been operational since 1983. Since the closure of the US tokamak TFTR in Spring 1997, JET is the only experiment worldwide able to operate with the deuterium-tritium fuel mixture of a future commercial fusion power station. Furthermore, JET is the nearest in scale and geometry to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) which is currently in its Engineering Design Activities. At present, JET's programme is approved to the end of 1999.
Energy is produced when light atoms such as heavy isotopes of hydrogen are fused together to form heavier atoms such as helium. This is the process taking place in the Sun and stars. To do it on Earth is difficult, requiring even higher temperatures than in the Sun. In JET the hot ionised gas is confined by a magnetic field in a toroidal configuration (doughnut shape) known as a Tokamak.
Nuclear fusion will be important for long-term energy supply. The fuel (deuterium from water and the common mineral lithium from which the radioactive gas tritium is made) for this clean source of safe and environmentally-friendly energy is virtually inexhaustible:
· No atmospheric pollution; the fusion reaction produces helium which is an inert gas.
· No long-term storage of radioactive waste.
· Inherently safe system (it rapidly shuts itself down in less than 1 minute).
· Even an accidental release of tritium would have no consequence beyond the boundary of the power station site.
In a fusion reactor a lithium compound would be incorporated within a blanket surrounding the reactor core so that some neutrons can be utilised for manufacturing tritium. The tritium produced would then be extracted for use in the reactor.
The blanket would also provide the means of utilising the energy carried away from the reactions by the neutrons. As the neutrons are slowed down within the blanket, its temperature would rise thus enabling steam to be raised so that electricity could be generated in the conventional manner.
Ultimately, it is hoped that the conditions would be reached to enable a reactor to be built for which there would be no need to manufacture tritium and a virtually inexhaustible reserve of energy would become availa ble.
In November 1991, a world first, JET produced controlled fusion power, nearly 2 MW for over one second with a dilute fuel mixture of just 10% tritium.
Since then, JET has been rebuilt with a "divertor" to handle higher levels of exhaust power, and deuterium experiments in the ITER geometry have made essential contributions to the ITER divertor design and provided key data on heating, confinement and fuel purity. This has allowed the size, heating requirements and operating conditions of ITER to be defined.
In October JET conducted a broad-based series of experiments using various deuterium-tritium (D-T) mixtures to address issues of both fusion power production and the physics of D-T plasmas for ITER.
This campaign of D-T experiments has set three new world records in fusion performance and has allowed a more accurate assessment of the ignition margin and heating requirements for ITER as follows:
· 14MJ of fusion energy, 13MW of peak fusion power and a fusion Q (the ratio of fusion power produced to the net input power) of 60%.
· JET has tested the first large scale plant of the type needed to supply and process tritium in a future fusion power station.
The third stage of the JET divertor programme begins in early 1998 with the remote handling installation of an ITER-specific divertor target assembly. This will demonstrate for the first time one of the technologies which is vital for both ITER and a fusion power station.
The trip to Big Ben has been rescheduled for 1.15 pm, Thursday 22 October 1998. Weekend visits are not possible. Numbers are limited so places will be given on a first come basis. Plenty of warning has been given so that fitness training can start in anticipation of the long climb to the top.
The Christmas Soiree was another excellent event with no shortage of New Zealand wines and Steinlager beers. Our thanks to all who helped make the evening a success. The two motions put to the Special General Meeting were carried unanimously. We are grateful to all of you who were unable to attend but nonetheless took the trouble to send postal votes.
The New Zealand cricketers have changed their name from "The Young Guns" to "The Black Caps" or as one commentator put it "The Cap Guns".
A note of warning for travellers: there is no Duty Free beer available at Brisbane Airport . What has happened to Australia as we know it?
The failure of three out of four main electricity cables serving central Auckland has prompted worldwide interest. IPENZ has sent a special "e-zine" to subscribers on 24th February. For those of you who do not or cannot subscribe we have reproduced the beginning section. To subscribe to the "e-zine" go to http://www.ipenz.org.nzThe JET Project
Fusion
Fusion Reactor
Deuterium/Tritium Experiments
Trip to Big Ben
1997 Christmas Soiree and Special General Meeting
News in Brief
Auckland CBD Electricity Crisis
"This special edition of the IPENZ e-zine is to update members on IPENZ initiatives as a result of the Auckland central business district electricity crisis.
We have received a considerable number of faxes, phone calls and e-mails from members asking what we are doing and suggesting possible options. For these we are thankful as they have given us some interesting perspectives.
We have been taking an active (albeit unpublicised role) in trying to get an independent investigation going. On Saturday, the Chief Executive of Mercury Energy Mr. Wayne Gilbert said he would welcome an independent inquiry set up by IPENZ. We took up this opportunity and spent most of yesterday in dialogue with the Chairman and Chief Executive of Mercury as well as the Office of the Minister of Energy in proposing an inquiry team. We have nominated five senior members of the profession who would be able to either individually or collectively look at both the engineering, management and governance issues. At this stage, it is our guess that our representatives would form part of the broader Ministerial inquiry spoken of yesterday following the Cabinet meeting. We hope to have this confirmed in a day or two."
The UK Association wishes to extend its deepest sympathy to Ian Kirker on the recent death of his father and to Keith Armstrong on the death of his fiancée.
Selwyn has moved the website onto a different server where it is easier for him to access to do maintenance although there is a re-director on the previous server so that people can still get to our site using the previous URL.
The new URL is as follows. People who use the old one will be automatically redirected to the new one.
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~skaickin/ipenzuk.htm
The Hon. Secretary has also changed ISP and can now be emailed at
(Both addresses are repeated in the boxes at the bottom of pages 1 and 4 of the Newsletter.)
The Hon. Secretary called in at Head Office during her recent trip to New Zealand and managed to acquire a few more membership application forms and other items. If you would like a set sent to you please contact her.
Subscriptions for 1998/99 are due on 1st April. Following the Special General Meeting in November subscription rates have increased to £10. Membership address lists will only be sent to paid up members who have asked to be included.
| 21 March 1998 | Trip to JET Joint Undertaking |
| Spring 1998 | Trip to Canning Town |
| 9 June 1998 | AGM (date may change) |
| 22 October 1998 | Trip to Big Ben (numbers limited to 10 max.) |
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