Fusion: an Aussie discovery

More than 70 years after Australian scientist Sir Mark Oliphant first discovered fusion, much of the world is setting its sights on his breakthrough to provide virtually limitless clean energy for the future.

Thursday 12 October 2006

A Sydney workshop will this week hear details of a major new international research and development initiative, ITER, to take forward fusion energy.

But, experts are concerned that, the nation which raised the father of fusion power, and which has made numerous contributions to its development over the years, may find itself excluded from future research breakthroughs unless it becomes involved in ITER in the near future.

South Australian Sir Marc Oliphant made his groundbreaking discovery of a nuclear fusion process in 1934 while working at the University of Cambridge in the UK alongside New Zealander Ernest Rutherford.

Fusion is the process that powers the Sun and the stars. It is a combination of two light atoms (typically hydrogen) to form a heavier atom (typically helium).

Oliphant - who during World War 2 worked on the atomic bomb before becoming a harsh critic of nuclear weapons – returned to Australia in 1950 to become the first Director of the Australian National University Research School of Physical Sciences.

Under Oliphant, members of ANU’s plasma physics group began work in 1963 on LT-1, the first tokamak outside of Russia. A tokamak is a machine which produces a doughnut shaped magnetic field for confining a plasma, the ionised gas produced by very high temperatures and/or pressures – such as the in the heart of the sun or in lightning.

Some 40 years on, this doughnut-shape remains the most promising design for generating net power from nuclear fusion and this is reflected in the design for ITER.

“Australia pioneered tokamaks in the West,” explains Professor John O’Connor, Head of the School of Mathematical and Physical Science at the University of Newcastle. “Russia was developing them but the West had largely ignored them.”

As well as the plasma group at ANU, sizeable groups developed at the University of Sydney and at Flinders University in Adelaide.

The group at Flinders developed the rotamak fusion reactor concept , which is more compact than the tokamak, while Australia has also been home to two innovative heliac machines, SHEILA and the H-1 heliac which is still in operation in Canberra. Though not intended to produce fusion, H-1 allows basic research into advanced plasma shapes for the generation of devices to follow ITER .

“As tokamaks got bigger and bigger, Australia has always looked at novel approaches for creating fusion conditions” explains George Collins, Chief of Research at ANSTO, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation.

“Rotamaks and heliacs have not been pushed forward as much as tokamaks, but they have made a respected contribution to the worldwide fusion effort.”

Australia has also developed an expertise in materials which is valuable to future fusion research.

But despite Australia’s founding and on-going role in fusion science, it is not presently a part of the ITER research partnership, a matter which the “Australian ITER Forum”, a group of leading Australian scientists and engineers, is trying to address. The international meeting in Sydney this week will be an opportunity for Australia to discuss a possible role in the future of fusion power.

“Given the potential impact of fusion as a sustainable solution to the world’s long term energy needs, Australia needs to act now,” says Dr Hole.

The Australian ITER Workshop will be held in Sydney Australia at the Manly Pacific Hotel, 55 North Steyne, Manly
Thursday 12 and Friday 13 October 2006.

Journalists are invited to attend an evening reception
Wednesday 11 October 6.30-8.30pm and can sit in on the workshop

For interview, contact Dr George Collins - 0408 202 605, Dr Matthew Hole – 0417 148 114 or Prof John O'Connor - 0402 839 978

The conference is being organised by scientists from the University of Sydney, the Australian National University, Flinders University, University of Canberra, the University of Newcastle, University of Wollongong, Murdoch University, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, and the Australian Institute for Nuclear Science and Engineering.

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