Contents


Preface

Power production and its consumption and distribution are among the most urgent problems of civilization. Despite huge efforts and positive dynamics in introducing renewable sources of energy such as solar and wind, nuclear power plants still remain the major source of carbon-free electric energy. However, the deposits of nuclear fuel are limited. Fusion can be an alternative to fission for the foreseeable future. Nuclear fusion takes place in the sun and provides energy for life on Earth. Research in the field of controlled nuclear fusion has been ongoing for almost 100 years. Since 1920, many physics and engineering problems of fusion have been successfully resolved, and several fusion technologies have been implemented in other fields of science and technology. Magnetic confinement systems are the most promising for effective implementation, and the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is under construction in France. ITER is designed to

To accomplish nuclear fusion on Earth, we have to resolve a wide scope of scientific and technological problems. This is why the nuclear fusion international community consists of a large number of divisions. For example, nuclear fusion problems start from those of nuclear physics, which demonstrate the basics of energy release from the fusion of light atoms to heavier atoms. To realize controlled nuclear fusion, many schemes have been discovered and suggested, for example magnetic confinement and inertial synthesis. Magnetic confinement systems can be divided into tokamaks and stellarators. These two types of nuclear fusion devices can in turn be classified into spheromaks and torsatrons. Plasma is proposed for creating the conditions for controlled nuclear fusion. Plasma physics and engineering are also a very large part of physics. Plasma used to be unstable and needed additional efforts to prevent plasma discharge breakdown. Many physicists have devoted themselves to studying plasma instabilities and searching for ways to suppress or avoid these instabilities. Electromagnetic waves propagate in the fusion plasmas. The waves can be used for plasma heating up to the temperatures of nuclear fusion reactions. We also have to understand how to excite these waves and how to propagate them. These waves interact with the plasma, the walls of the chamber, and with each other, and we need to understand how they are absorbed. Many problems are associated with designing and constructing the antennae to excite electromagnetic waves and the power supply for the antennae. We have to know how to extract the energy from the future thermonuclear power plant. Finally, we need materials to produce a chamber in which the plasmas can be "boiled." These materials should be stable to significant heat and mechanical loads, as well as to undesirable interaction

For decades, many national and international journals have published papers devoted to fusion-related topics. It is clear that any single book cannot cover all the topics of nuclear fusion research. This monograph includes selected chapters of nuclear physics and mechanical engineering within the scope of nuclear fusion.

In the first chapter, "Nuclear Fusion: Holy Grail of Energy," harnessing the energy produced in a nuclear fusion reaction in a laboratory environment is discussed.

demonstrate a 10-fold return on energy.

with aggressive hot plasmas.
