Fusion energy question?

Question

I understand making fusion (cold/nuclear/ect), but I have no idea how the energy is suppose to be collected from fusion? Is it the light(useing solar cells)?, is it magnetic(using copper wire collecting random electron emmisions)?, or is it just heat that would turn a turbine?

Just very curiuos...

thanks

Answer 1

Heat from the process is one way, if the plasma could oscillate, and is in fact magnetic in nature then it could induce a voltage into coils nearby. One method that is little known would be to extract some of the plasma and direct it into a magnetothermohydrodynamic converter. Since the plasma is electrically charged, in such a device would induce an electrical current into the devices collection terminals.

Russia has used such devices, at least in the past. I believe that Lawrence-Livermore was also doing research into these devices.

Answer 2

Energy in the most common fusion reactions comes out in the form of high energy neutrons. It isnt so easy to get the energy from the neutrons though. As the name implies, they are neutral. This means that you cant collect them with electric or magnetic fields (if you want to do that look up MHD generator).

Neutrons dont really react with much either, the best way to get them is it let them undergo many collisions with something that is about the same size as them until they are going slow enough to collect. As you know if you throw a ping pong ball at a bowling ball it just bounces off and comes right back at you with the same speed you threw it with. But, if it hits another ping pong ball it will transfer about half of its energy to that and keep the other half. This is why you let it collide with things that are about the same mass.

The thing that is used is Lithium. It is only about 6 times the mass of a neutron, so it is kinda like the ping pong ball example. The lithium will heat up from the neutrons, and you get the bonus of the lithium capturing the neutron when it slows down enough. The lithium has water running through it which is heated up by the hot lithium and can then be used to run a steam turbine. The double bonus you get is from the lithium, which captured a neutron, decays into helium and Tritium, one of the rare fuels you need for the reactor to work. So the lithium breeds tritium which you can then extract and use in the reactor.

Answer 3

The first generation of fusion power plants will most likely use some sort of heat cycle.

But as you've hit upon, more advanced fusion plants could covert the energy in to electricity using more efficient means. If you think about it a tokamak is basically a huge transformer. There is no reason why you can't convert the energy released in fusion reactions directly into usable electricity. There are some interesting design issues that would have to solved, but they're tractable.

Answer 4

this is a very good question my best guess would be heat  

Answer 5

heat.

heat boils water makes steam turns turbine.

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