Australia urged to join 'world's largest experiment'.


Experts say Australia is running out of time to be part of the global research effort on nuclear fusion.
Dr Matthew Hole of the Australian National University in Canberra says Australia should be a partner in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in southern France, which is a testbed for a commercial fusion power reactor.
Dr Hole is a plasma physicist chairing a workshop on fusion and the ITER in Sydney this week.
"The ITER project itself is the world largest science experiment," Dr Hole said.
Dr Hole says ITER is driving the international agenda in fusion energy research and Australia should be involved so that it keeps its research capacity in the area, and does not end up having to buy the technology back at great cost.
He says the seven ITER partners could ratify the final reactor plan as early as December and once these plans are signed off on Australia will be "locked out" of any opportunity to contribute to the reactor construction.
"It's a very urgent issue," Dr Hole said. "The deadline, if not missed, is approaching being missed.
"The next opportunity will might be in 10 years' time by which time Australia will have no research capability in this area."
An Australian discovery
Fusion power reactors have been a dream of many since Australian Sir Mark Oliphant discovered nuclear fusion, the process that powers the Sun and other stars, in 1934.
Fusion involves the release of energy from the combination of two light atomic nuclei, typically isotopes of hydrogen.
It is this energy that scientists hope to harness as a safe, greenhouse-friendly and economic form of power.
Dr Hole says nuclear fusion would produce energy at a cost comparable to nuclear fission but with an environmental impact comparable to wind power.
But there are many challenges. Significant energy is required to force two positively charged atomic nuclei together and a plasma gas of the charged particles must be kept hot and dense for long enough to undergo fusion.
One challenge is how to confine the plasma that must be kept at temperatures around the heat of the Sun.
Doughnut-shaped magnetic fields
The ITER will be a fusion reactor called a tokomak, originally designed in Russia but pioneered in the west by Australia.
The tokomak fuses ions of hydrogen (deuterium and tritium) that are confined in a doughnut-shaped magnetic field at temperatures of up to 100,000,000 degrees Celsius.
Dr Hole says that unlike previous plasma physics experiments, the ITER will produce more energy than it consumes.
Under special conditions it will even produce 30 times more energy than it consumes.
He says various technologies being developed in Australia could contribute to the ITER but despite Australia's early leadership in fusion science, it now risks missing out unless it is officially part of the French-based project.
Dr Hole says relevant Australian expertise includes the ability to diagnose what is going on in the reactor, including measuring temperatures.
"Measuring temperatures at 100 million degrees, for example, is no simple exercise," he says.
Australia also has expertise in developing materials that can handle the high temperatures involved, Dr Hole said.
Currently, Dr Hole says only $1.3 million is spent on fusion research in Australia and this should be increased to $16 million to be competitive with the US and UK commitment.
He says the workshop has been sponsored by the federal Education, Science and Training Department as an information gathering exercise for the Government.
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