What is this plot? Why does it matter*?

*Yes, it really does matter!

What is this plot? Average binding energy per nucleon (How tightly nuclei are stuck together by the strong nuclear force

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Binding_energy_curve_-_common_isotopes.svg

Why does this plot matter? This is why nuclear fission and fusion release energy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Binding_energy_curve_-_common_isotopes.svg

FISSION

Daily Fuel Requirements for 1000 MW power plant

Material amount Coal 8,000,000 kg 1 train/day Oil 40,000 barrels 1 tanker/week Natural Gas 2,500,000 ft3

Uranium (enriched)

3 kg Fission

2H, 3H ~100g Few liters/month Fusion

Consider a mile long coal train

How much carbon dioxide is produced when the coal is burned?

How much carbon dioxide is produced when the coal is burned?

CO2 = 12C + 2 16O = 12 + 32 = 44 nucleons

= 3.67 mile train equivalent of of C02

44/12 = 3.67

+ + +

Per day for a 1000 MW coal power plant

Global Temperature Increasing…

Three Mile Island PA March 1979 Accident Level 5 of 7

Chernobyl April 1986 Accident Level 7 of 7

Mechanical Failure Operator Errors Loss of Coolant Confusing control interfaces Containment vessel not compromised

Poorly planned test of safety system Power surge Reactor vessel rupture Ignition of graphite moderator Significant release of radioactive material 31 deaths at plant + 4000(?) eventual

Fukushima Daiichi (Japan) March 2011 Accident Level 7 of 7

Unsafe Site Tsunami disabled primary and backup power Reactors were shutdown Loss of Coolant Core meltdown

Which process was first proposed as a source of energy? Fusion? Fission?

Which process was first proposed as a source of energy? Fusion (probably)

"The helium which we handle must have been put together at some time and some place. We do not argue with the critic who urges that the stars are not hot enough for this process; we tell him to go and find a hotter place." Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington The Internal Constitution of the Stars (1926), 301.

History of Fission Energy

• Meitner, Hahn, Strassman: fission of Uranium (1939)

• Bohr and Wheeler; Theory of Fission (Phys Rev 56, 426; Sept 1, 1939)

• Fermi: First controlled fission reactor; Chicago 1942

• Oppenheimer; First fission (“atomic”) bomb; New Mexico 1945

Artist’s sketch of the first atomic pile, Stagg Field, University of Chicago Dec 1942

Enrico Fermi 1901-1954 Nobel Prize Physics 1938

1945 Japan

History of fusion energy

• Eddington “The internal constitution of stars” (1926)

• Gamow “ The rate of fusion in stars” (~1930)

• Bethe “Energy production in stars” (1939)

• Teller-Ulam propose fusion (“Hydrogen”) bomb (~1948)

• Spitzer “Project Matterhorn: a proposed stellarator” (1951)

• Einwetok: First “hydrogen” bomb tested (1952)

• ITER; projected operation; Cadarache, France (2018)?????????

Applications to induced fusion

Controlled: Nuclear Fusion Power Plant (projects: tokamaks, laser…) New initiative: ITER project Problem: Ignition !

Uncontrolled: Hydrogen Bomb (H-bomb) requires an A-bomb to ignite fusion !!! Enhanced yield: Hundreds of kilotons Tens of Megatons ! (Hiroshima, 20 kt)

Reading: “Dark Sun” (Richard Rhodes)

http://www.toodlepip.com/tokamak/gallery-int.htm

National Ignition Facility (NIF)

What is, arguably, the most interesting example of a fission or fusion process, from a physics point of view?

TeMururoa Atoll - July - 3 -1970 – French Thermonuclear TN-60 Warhead test "Licorne" (914 Kilotons).

Operation CASTLE 1954 Romeo 11 Megaton Yield Hydrogen Bomb

10 km http://www.archive.org/details/CastleCommandersReport1954

Crab Neubla 1054

http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0515a/

1014 km

SN Right Ascension Declination constellation ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 185 14h 32m -60 20 Centaurus 393 17h 11m -38 20 Scorpius 1006 14h 59m -41 45 Lupus 1054 05h 31m 31s +21 59 Taurus 1181 02h 02m +64 37 Cassiopeia 1572 00h 22m 30s +63 51 Cassiopeia 1604 17h 27m 42s -21 27 Ophiuchus

Supernova in our Galaxy Historical Observations

http://www.tass-survey.org/richmond/answers/historical.html

SN Right Ascension Declination constellation ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 185 14h 32m -60 20 Centaurus 393 17h 11m -38 20 Scorpius 1006 14h 59m -41 45 Lupus 1054 05h 31m 31s +21 59 Taurus 1181 02h 02m +64 37 Cassiopeia 1572 00h 22m 30s +63 51 Cassiopeia 1604 17h 27m 42s -21 27 Ophiuchus 2??? ? ?

Supernova in our Galaxy

During your lifetime !?