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Hi
Mike,
Did you get
an answer from Adam yet ?
FYI, fusion
reactors are expected to produce electricity in the same way as other thermal
plants with, as you say, steam turning turbines &
generators.
Of course the
steam would not be INSIDE the reactor -- as with our CANDU D2O / H2O primary
and secondary heat transfer circuits, fusion reactors would (most likely) use
liquid lithium metal to transfer heat from the tokamak torus (in which it cools
the outside "first wall" of the plasma vacuum chamber) to a steam
generator. The lithium would have a dual function, both as heat transfer medium
and tritium breeding material (not sure if designs call for an intermediate heat
exchanger to avoid the possibility of water contamination with radioactivity in
the steam generator.... Adam ?).
Some more
futuristic conceptual designs also call for fusion reactors to use a
magnetohydrodynamic topping cycle, in addition to the steam plant (although I
seem to recall that this type of design is only feasible with mirror machines -
not tokamaks..... Adam ?).
Jaro
-----Original Message-----
From: English, Michael [mailto:englishm@aecl.ca] Sent: Monday January 06, 2003 12:20 PM To: 'Adam McLean'; 'cdn-nucl-l (E-mail)' Subject: RE: [cdn-nucl-l] Iter fusion reactor bid needs more funds? Hi Adam:
All this talk of fusion, etc., and this article that got everyone started on this topic has me wondering a few things. First of all, how do you generate electricity from
fusion? Because, and correct me if I'm wrong, I'm assuming that's the
ultimate goal of ITER (to demonstrate that a sustainable reaction is achievable
and, later, that electricity generation is possible). Obviously the
conventional steam turbines won't cut it (we can't even contain the plasma with
conventional materials, so how could we use the heat to make steam?) Would
TEGs work at those temperatures?
Secondly, the article that Jerry posted stated that
"Darlington produces 20 per cent of Ontario's electricity. " The IMO lists
available capacity in Ontario at 29939MW, which may or may not include available
imports. So let's consider OPG alone. OPG's website indicates them
to have ~24600MW installed capacity, including Pickering A. Darlington can
produce ~3500MW, which by my calculations is at best 14% of OPG's
capacity. Since there are other generators in the province, notable Bruce
Power, there's no way Darlington produces 20% of Ontario's electricity.
Any idea where the Star came up with this figure? Would this be based on
actual energy produced?
Cheers
Mike
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