Garry McCracken and Peter Stott
Academic Press
February 2005
Paperback 224 pp ISBN 012481851X
£35.00
Details the initial discovery of nuclear fusion, all related research, and today's
concern over future energy supply
Examines current attempts to create nuclear fusion here on earth
Enhanced with color illustrations and examples
Provides a non-technical treatment of fusion using straightforward language
Includes technical notes for aspiring physicists
Unraveling the role of fusion in the universe has taken almost a century since Einstein's proof of the
equivalence of energy and matter in 1905. The discovery that fusion reactions are responsible for the
building of the light elements in the "Big Bang" and the subsequent development of the heavier elements
in the stars and in exploding supernovae is one of the field's most exciting successes.
In this engaging book, McCracken and Stott reexamine these discoveries in astrophysics and discuss the
possibility that fusion reactions are not only our sun's source of power, but may also be induced
for our use on earth.
Readership: Undergraduates in Physics and Engineering, especially Nuclear Engineering.
Also appropriate for professionals and general science enthusiasts.
Contents
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
1 What Is Nuclear Fusion?
1.1 The Alchemists€ Dream.
1.2 The Sun€s Energy
1.3 Can We Use Fusion Energy?
1.4 Man-Made Suns
1.5 The Rest of the Story
2 Energy from Mass
2.1 Einstein€s Theory
2.2 Building Blocks
2.3 Something Missing
3 Fusion in the Sun and Stars
3.1 The Source of the Sun€s Energy
3.2 The Solar Furnace
3.3 Gravitational Confinement
3.4 The Formation of Heavier Atoms
3.5 Stars and Supernovae
4 Man-Made Fusion
4.1 Down to Earth
4.2 Getting It Together
4.3 Breaking Even
5 Magnetic Confinement
5.1 The First Experiments
5.2 Behind Closed Doors
5.3 Opening the Doors
5.4 ZETA
5.5 From Geneva to Novosibirsk
6 The Hydrogen Bomb
6.1 The Background
6.2 The Problems
6.3 Beyond the €Sloyka€
7 Inertial-Confinement Fusion
7.1 Mini-Explosions
7.2 Using Lasers
7.3 Alternative Drivers
7.4 The Future Program
8 False Trails
8.1 Fusion in a Test Tube?
8.2 Bubble Fusion
8.3 Fusion with Mesons
9 Tokamaks
9.1 The Basics
9.2 Instabilities
9.3 Diagnosing the Plasma
9.4 Impurities
9.5 Heating the Plasma
10 From T3 to ITER
10.1 The Big Tokamaks
10.2 Pushing to Peak Performance
10.3 Tritium Operation
10.4 Scaling to a Power Plant
10.5 The Next Step
10.6 ITER
11 Fusion Power Plants
11.1 Early Plans
11.2 Fusion Power Plant Geometry
11.3 Magnetic-Confinement Fusion
11.4 Inertial-Confinement Fusion
11.5 Tritium Breeding
11.6 Radiation Damage and Shielding
11.7 Low-Activation Materials
12 WhyWe Need Fusion Energy
12.1 World Energy Needs
12.2 The Choice of Fuels
12.3 The Environmental Impact of Fusion Energy
12.4 The Cost of Fusion Energy
