Berlin 2005 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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SYPZ: Plasmaphysik und Fusionsforschung - Energie für die Zukunft

SYPZ 1: SYPZ I

SYPZ 1.1: Hauptvortrag

Dienstag, 8. März 2005, 11:00–11:30, HU 3038

The long-term energy issue and the possible role of nuclear fusion — •William D’haeseleer — University of Leuven Energy Institute, Celestijnenlaan 300, B-3001 LEUVEN (Heverlee), Belgium

From a general analysis of the world energy issue, driven by a variety of elements such as the enhanced greenhouse effect, the strong fluctuations in energy prices, the world-wide drive towards liberalization of the grid-based energy carriers, and the social-driven tendency to integration of renewable energy sources and decentralized generation, it is argued that an affordable, clean and reliable energy supply will have to consist of a portfolio of primary energy sources, a large fraction of which will be converted to a secondary carrier in large base-load plants. In the light of major uncertainties in the long-term energy provision, the sensible approach with regard to energy-conversion technologies is not an ’either-or’, but an ’and-and’ philosophy. All three long term options, renewables, fission and fusion, should be further explored and developed so that future generations can choose the composition of an appropriate energy-source basket. It would be irresponsible towards future generations not to pursue a potentially successful energy source such as nuclear fusion. Indeed, future fusion power plants have good prospects to qualify as economic and environmentally benign base-load electricity generation plants. The author tries to explore and understand why nuclear-fusion research is not considered as being strategically important by many energy analysts.