Kaw imagines a future for nuclear fusion
There is a very striking difference in the energy consumption patterns of developed and developing countries. This is the setting portrayed by Predhiman H. Kaw of the Institute for Plasma Research, Bhat, Gandhinagar 382428, India, on the opening day, 20 March 1999, of the American Physical Society centennial meeting in Atlanta, as he sought to make the case for fusion energy which his Institute is promoting.
Kaw began by showing a graph of life expectancy at birth vs. per capita energy consumption, an approximately linear relationship. In per capita energy consumption, Kaw stated, his native India stood at only one fiftieth of North America. But, he noted, developing nations seek to climb up this graph. Even a modest increase of energy consumption for developing countries, though, would lead to a doubling of world energy consumption by 2025. Moreover, most of it would be fossil fuels, which will lead to adverse global environmental effects. Thus, Kaw concluded, an alternative is needed.
Because, he claimed, a high standard of living is possible with only 40% of present energy consumption in developed countries, he would call for voluntary reduction of energy consumption in developed countries. But stagnating energy consumption in developing countries will only stagnate their economies. Although the use of fossil fuels must be "cleaned up" -- by scrubbers or shifts to natural gas -- the world's time for using fossil fuels would comprise only a short period of its history.
Nuclear energy must come up to higher levels (25 to 35%) in the developing world, he maintained; it is clean and economical if licensing is streamlined (the major cost of the most recent U.S. nuclear plant, he said, was interest). Proliferation is a problem for statesmanship, he added, noting that renewables are good for remote areas but won't replace urban needs without more research.
For the long-term solution to the world's energy problems, Kaw advocated nuclear fusion, because of its limitlessness and its minimal waste products. In fact, he noted, deuterium-deuterium (as opposed to deuterium-tritium) fusion has no waste products at all. Kaw argued also that fusion research should be directed toward achieving steady state rather than pulsed operation. He lamented that ITER (International Thermonuclear Energy Reactor) had been delayed and closed with the following proverb: "The Earth is our mother. Every day we should ask forgiveness for stepping on her."
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