Synopsis
This electronic book on DVD-ROM provides an unprecedented encyclopedic collection of documents, official reference books and guides, images, and videos about every conceivable aspect of nuclear fusion technology and research. We believe that this exceptional collection provides the most comprehensive set of government fusion documents ever offered. Programs and topics covered include ITER (formerly known as the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) currently under construction in France designed to achieve burning plasmas; NIF - the National Ignition Facility and Photon Science project at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California; the Laser Inertial Fusion Engine (LIFE) concept; research into magnetic fusion energy (MFE) and tokamaks; inertial fusion energy; plasma science; simulation; physics; high energy density physics, FESAC reports; nuclear core design; tritium; remote handling technology; creating predictable high-performance steady-state plasmas; fusion-fission hybrid systems; the history of fusion technology; earlier projects such as AIRES, FIRE, NSTX, NSCX, JET, Z-pinch, TFTR, and many others; plus legacy material from 2002 and earlier. The collection includes nearly 400 PDF files and 14 video files. Nuclear fusion - the process that powers the sun - offers an environmentally benign, intrinsically safe energy source with an abundant supply of low-cost fuel. it is the focus of an international research program, including the ITER fusion collaboration, which involves seven parties representing half the world's population. The realization of fusion power would change the economics and ecology of energy production as profoundly as petroleum exploitation did two centuries ago. The 21st century finds fusion research in a transformed landscape. The worldwide fusion community broadly agrees that the science has advanced to the point where an aggressive action plan, aimed at the remaining barriers to practical fusion energy, is warranted. At the same time, and largely because of its scientific advance, the program faces new challenges; above all it is challenged to demonstrate the timeliness of its promised benefits. The main advantages of producing power from fusion reactions are well known: essentially inexhaustible, low-cost fuel, available worldwide; high energy-density of fuel, allowing straightforward base-load power production without major transportation costs; no production of greenhouse gas, soot or acid rain; no possibility of runaway reaction or meltdown that could pose a risk to public safety; minimal proliferation risk; and only short-lived radioactive wastes. Few of these benefits are unique to fusion; what is exceptional is their simultaneous achievement in a single concept. For example, fusion's freedom from greenhouse-gas production and chemical pollution is shared with, among other energy sources, fission nuclear power; in this regard the relatively mild radioactivity of fusion, whose waste is thousands of times less radioactive and long-lived than fission, is significant. On the other hand, compared to the non-proliferating renewable energy sources, fusion offers a steady, predictable energy source with low land use. To be weighed against these advantages is the long and relatively expensive development path for fusion. Achieving the conditions necessary for appreciable fusion reactions to occur invokes substantial physics and engineering challenges. Yet the impressive progress achieved in addressing these hurdles must be acknowledged. One measure is the exponential increase in fusion power produced in laboratory experiments, amounting to some eight orders of magnitude (a factor of 100,000,000) since the mid-1970s.
About the Author
Some fusion experiments have approached scientific "break-even," producing roughly as much fusion power as was externally supplied for heating the fuel. A more important if less easily measured avenue of progress lies in scientific understanding. Fusion scientists have developed a broad and sophisticated, if still incomplete, picture of what is happening in a magnetically confined fusion plasma. This advance now allows routine control of key plasma properties and behavior. This DVD-ROM disc has over 40,000 pages reproduced using Adobe Acrobat PDF software - allowing direct viewing on Windows and Macintosh systems. Advanced search and indexing features are built into our reproduction, providing a complete full-text index. This enables the user to search all the files on the disk at one time for words or phrases using just one search command! The Acrobat cataloging technology adds enormous value and uncommon functionality to this impressive collection. These DVD-ROM discs are for use in a computer DVD drive. The files can be accessed from the File Explorer in the same way that you open files from a CD-ROM disc; the CD-ROM and DVD-ROM formats are functionally the same, but the DVD has more than six times greater storage capacity. Of course, this disc cannot be "played" in a DVD player connected to a television set. It contains computer-formatted data. Our news and educational discs are privately compiled collections of official public domain U.S. government files and documents - they are not produced by the federal government. They are designed to provide a convenient user-friendly reference work, utilizing the benefits of the Adobe Acrobat format to uniformly present thousands of pages that can be rapidly reviewed, searched by finding specific words, or printed without untold hours of tedious research and downloading. Vast archives of important public domain government information that might otherwise remain inaccessible are available for instant review no matter where you are. This book-on-a-disc format makes a great reference work and educational tool. There is no other reference that is as fast, convenient, comprehensive, thoroughly researched, and portable - everything you need to know, from the federal sources you trust.
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