National Institute for Fusion Science |
Creating the Sun on the Earth - Working toward the actualization of nuclear fusion energy. |
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| NIFS Top » Greeting from Director-General | |||
The National Institute for Fusion Science (NIFS) has been carrying out its research with the view to generate the energy from the seawater. NIFS tries to utilize deuterium as well as tritium, both contained in the seawater, as the fuel to cause a nuclear reaction and thus to generate the energy by nuclear fusion. The nuclear fusion energy generated as a result of a nuclear fusion reaction is said to be the only source of energy that will last forever. To be more precise, the sun shines by the nuclear fusion reaction; thus, NIFS promotes its research activity toward a common goal, “Creating the Sun on the Ground”. Fuels need to be brought to the plasma state to cause the nuclear fusion reaction. Plasmas necessary to cause the nuclear fusion reaction and those for thin plasma display televisions are the same plasmas. Also, a fluorescent light brightens because plasmas are generated within the light. Well, plasmas are, in actuality, widely used in our neighborhood. NIFS studies those plasmas that are necessary to generate the nuclear fusion energy in the future. To cause the nuclear fusion reaction, high-temperature high-density plasmas are required, and we conduct research to actualize such plasmas. Yet, the device in NIFS is not big enough to actualize high-temperature high-density plasmas that are necessary to extract the nuclear fusion energy. To do this, we must build another bigger device. NIFS carries out research mainly by using a superconduction large helical device (LHD). LHD is also known for its magnetic field confinement system called ‘heliotron’, which was uniquely developed in Japan. With LHD, the institute places greater importance on the following: 1) the research in the generation and confinement of high-temperature high-density plasmas and 2) the analysis of LHD experiments as well as the extensive theoretical and simulation science research by using the supercomputer. These two areas of research are almost comparable to a pair of wheels in the car. Besides, NIFS has promoted a series of collaborative research in cooperation with researchers and professors from domestic as well as international universities. The institute has been playing the role of a global COE (center of excellence) in the area of nuclear fusion science research ever since its establishment. In consequence, we are now approaching the stage where we have just few more steps to the actualization of the nuclear fusion energy. To say more precisely, a power generation by nuclear fusion is said to be in operation in about 30 years from now. For this reason, NIFS would like to make even more effort to develop a wider scope of human resources for the future. Humans are now facing the chance of destruction due to problems like the global warming caused by CO2 emitted from chemical fuels like petroleum as well as the depletion of such fuels. Also, the world population now amounts to approximately 6.7 billion people, and the professionals presume that it will reach 9 billions or more by the middle of this century. Even the current population is considered rather too dense for humans to happily coexist with the nature on the earth. On the other hand, matured societies like Japan as well as European nations are then expecting the drastic population decrease. Supposing that the nuclear fusion energy be available, we could solve immediate problems like the chemical fuel depletion. That means that humans are allowed to first mature their societies slowly but surely in all over the world and then to take time to get a healthy population standard back again. Also, the present interglacial period is said to be longer than any other periods. The fact implies that the earth may once again run into the new glacial epoch. Now, even when it became true, unless it is so serious that the entire ground is covered with ice, humans keeping the ideal population standard would have a chance to survive by utilizing the nuclear fusion energy for about 5 billion years until the sun finally burns out… I strongly believe that we must now, when the chemical fuels are still available, develop and finalize all the necessary scientific technologies for the future power generation by nuclear fusion. In so doing, your support and encouragement will be truly appreciated. We are looking forward to seeing you here in the National Institute for Fusion Science. Successive Directors-General |
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