FTI Research
- APEX
- ARIES
- Code Development
- D-3He Fuel Cycle
- Environmental Impact
- FIRE
- FRC
- HAPL
- IEC
- ITER
- Liquid Metal Safety
- Lunar Mining
- Medical Isotopes
- RadHydro
- Shock Tube
- Space Propulsion
- X1 Chamber
MFE & IFE Studies UW Neutronics Center of Excellence Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Shock Tube
Advanced D-3He Fuel Cycle
The interest in fusion safety has stimulated worldwide research for other fuel cycles such as D-D, D-3He, p-11B, and 3He-3He. These fuel cycles, except 3He-3He, are not completely aneutronic due to their side reactions. Neutron wall loadings, however, can be kept low (by orders of magnitude) compared to D-T fuelled plants with the same output power, eliminating the need for a breeding blanket and the replacement of the first wall and shielding components during the entire plant lifetime. The availability of 3He and the attainment of the higher plasma parameters required for burning are challenging problems for the D-3He fuel cycle. High beta and/or high field innovative confinement concepts, such as the field-reversed configuration and, to a lesser extent, the tokamaks are suitable devices for advanced fuel cycles. In the early 1990s, the ARIES-III D-3He tokamak was developed within the framework of the ARIES study. The UW D-3He Apollo series, along with ARIES-III, demonstrated attractive safety characteristics, including low activity and decay heat levels, low-level waste, and low releasable radioactive inventory from credible accidents. Another advantage for the D-3He system is the possibility of obtaining electrical power by direct energy conversion of the protons and radiation produced by fusion reactions. These advantages suggest that studies for the development of advanced fuel cycles should be carried out in parallel with the present mainstream D-T fusion power development, as the low neutron production helps overcome some of the engineering, materials, and safety hurdles to fusion development.
Related Links
- Gallery of He-3 Media Coverage
- D-3He Fusion Overview poster
- "Resources from Space" class notes
- A Field Trip to the Moon
- Safe, Clean Abundant Energy from the Moon [13 min Quicktime video] [170 MB .avi file]
FTI Publications
WCSAR-TR-AR3-9307-3 Second Wisconsin Symposium on Helium-3 and Fusion Power: Proceedings of a Symposium Held in Madison, Wisconsin, 19-21 July 1993; various authors, July 1993. (378 pages, 30 MB)
Optimization and Characterization of a Helicon Ion Source on an Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Device for Helium-3 Fusion;
G.E. Becerra, G.L. Kulcinski and J.F. Santarius,
November 2011 [presented at the APS-DPP Meeting, 14-18 November 2011, Salt Lake City UT]. (1 page, 971 kB)
Enhancement of an IEC Device with a Helicon Ion Source for Helium-3 Fusion;
G.E. Becerra, G.L. Kulcinski, J.F. Santarius,
December 2011 [presented at the 13th US-Japan Workshop on Inertial Electrostatic Confinement Fusion, 7-8 December 2011, Sydney, Australia]. (17 pages, 1.6 MB)
WCSAR-TR-AR3-8901-1 Legal Regimes for the Mining of Helium-3 from the Moon; R.B. Bilder, E.N. Cameron, G.L. Kulcinski, H.H. Schmitt, February 1989 (revised July 1989). (117 pages, 8.3 MB)
Direct Conversion of High Energy Protons Using a Solid State PIN Junction Diode;
David R. Boris, Zhenqiang Ma, Hao-Chih Yuan, Robert P. Ashley, John F. Santarius, Gerald L. Kulcinski, Clayton Dickerson, Todd Allen,
November 2006 [presented at the 17th ANS Topical Meeting on Fusion Energy, 13-15 November 2006, Albuquerque NM]. (1 page, 848 kB)
WCSAR-TR-AR3-8708 Titanium in Lunar Regolith and Its Use in Mining Site Selection; E.N. Cameron, August 1987.
WCSAR-TR-AR3-8810-3 Dark-Mantle Material as a Source of Helium; E.N. Cameron, January 1988. (16 pages, 615 kB)
WCSAR-TR-AR3-8810-6 Helium Mining on the Moon: Site Selection and Evaluation; E.N. Cameron, October 1988 [presented at 2nd Lunar Base Conference, April 1988, Houston TX]. (40 pages, 1.3 MB)
WCSAR-TR-AR3-9006-1 Geology of Mare Tranquillitatis and Its Significance for the Mining of Helium; E.N. Cameron, June 1990. (65 pages, 1.9 MB)
WCSAR-TR-AR3-9012-1 Net Environmental Aspects of Helium-3 Mining - Phase I: Effect on the Moon; E.N. Cameron, W.D. Carrier III, G.L. Kulcinski, H.H. Schmitt, October 1989 (revised December 1990). (88 pages, 9.2 MB)
WCSAR-TR-AR3-9204-1 Helium-3 from the Moon - An Alternative Source of Energy; E.N. Cameron and G.L. Kulcinski, April 1992 [Published in Proceedings of the First International Conference on Environmental Issues and Waste Management in Energy and Minerals Production, Secaucus NJ, 27-29 August 1990, T.M. Yegulalp and Kunsoo Kim, editors, 1992, Battelle Memorial Institute]. (41 pages, 5.1 MB)
WCSAR-TR-AR3-9207-1 Helium Resources of Mare Tranquillitatis; E.N. Cameron, July 1992. (70 pages, 2.4 MB)
UWFDM-935 Fifty Years of Research in Helium-3 Fusion and Helium-3 Resources; J.C. Crabb, S.W. White, L.P. Wainwright, S.E. Kratz, G.L. Kulcinski, December 1993 (revised May 1994). (134 pages, 1.7 MB)
WCSAR-TR-AR3-9312-1 Fifty Years Research in Helium-3 Fusion and Helium-3 Resources; J.C. Crabb, S.W. White, L.P. Wainwright, S.E. Kratz, G.L. Kulcinski, December 1993 (revised May 1994) [also UWFDM-935].
WCSAR-TR-AR3-8705 Survey of Past Lunar Bases; T.M. Crabb and M. Jacobs, May 1987.
WCSAR-TR-AR3-8707 Preliminary Lunar Base Scenario Design; T.M. Crabb and M. Jacobs, July 1987.
WCSAR-TR-AR3-8810-4 Synergism of He-3 Acquisition with Lunar Base Evolution; T.M. Crabb and M.K. Jacobs, October 1988 [presented at 2nd Lunar Base Conference, April 1988, Houston TX]. (34 pages, 1.2 MB)
WCSAR-TR-AR3-8810-5 Resource Modeling for Design Optimization: Lunar Base Mobile Miner; T.M. Crabb and M.K. Jacobs, October 1988 [presented at 2nd Lunar Base Conference, April 1988, Houston TX]. (37 pages, 1.5 MB)
WCSAR-TR-AR3-9309-1 Study of an Unmanned Lunar Mission for Volatile Gas Recovery (Phase 1 - Final Report); N. Duffie, G. Kulcinski, I. Sviatoslavsky, B. Bartos, S. Rutledge, L. Wittenberg, T. Ylikorpi, E. Mogahed, September 1993. (185 pages, 6.0 MB)
UWFDM-1296 Recent Developments in Environmental Aspects of D-3He Fueled Fusion Devices; Laila El-Guebaly and Massimo Zucchetti, October 2006 (revised April 2008) [published in Fusion Engineering and Design, vol. 82, 4 (2007) 351-361]. (27 pages, 630 kB) [more]
UWFDM-1304 A Lunar Volatiles Miner; Matthew E. Gajda, May 2006 [M.S. thesis]. (112 pages, 2.6 MB)
WCSAR-TR-AR3-9311-1 Remote Sensing of Astrofuel; K.R. Harris, H.Y. Khater, G.L. Kulcinski, November 1993 [Prepared for Space 94, The 4th International Conference and Exposition on Engineering, Construction and Operations in Space, and The Conference and Exposition/Demonstration on Robotics for Challenging Environments, February 26 - March 3, 1994, Albuquerque NM]. (12 pages, 163 kB)
UWFDM-1095 Trapping and Diffusion of Helium in Lunar Materials; Kimberly R. Harris-Kuhlman, December 1998 [Ph.D. thesis]. (298 pages, 14 MB)
UWFDM-1096 Terrestrial Analogs for Lunar Ilmenite; Kimberly R. Harris-Kuhlman and Gerald L. Kulcinski, April 1998 [Published in Space 98, The Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference and Exposition on Engineering, Construction, and Operations in Space, 26-30 April 1998, Albuquerque NM, Rodney G. Galloway and Stanley Lokaj, editors, pp. 533-540].
UWFDM-766 Energy Requirements for Helium-3 Mining Operations on the Moon; G.L. Kulcinski, I.N. Sviatoslavsky, J.F. Santarius, L.J. Wittenberg, E.N. Cameron, T.M. Crabb, M.K. Jacobs, October 1988 [presented at the Fifth Symposium on Space Nuclear Power Systems, 11-14 January 1988, Albuquerque NM]. (21 pages, 2.1 MB)
UWFDM-817 Mining Helium-3 from the Moon - A Solution to the Earth's Energy Needs in the 21st Century; G.L. Kulcinski, H.H. Schmitt, E.N. Cameron, I.N. Sviatoslavsky, November 1989 [presented at the 1990 SME Annual Meeting, 26 February - 1 March 1990, Salt Lake City UT]. (13 pages, 2.1 MB)
UWFDM-826 Fusion Power from Lunar Resources; G.L. Kulcinski and H.H. Schmitt, October 1990 (revised September 1991) [presented at the 41st Congress of the International Astronautical Federation, Dresden, Germany, 6-12 October 1990. To be published in Fusion Technology]. (25 pages, 625 kB)
UWFDM-879 A Resource Assessment and Extraction of Lunar 3He; G.L. Kulcinski, January 1992 [presented at the US-USSR Workshop on D-3He Reactor Studies, 25 September - 2 October 1991, Moscow]. (17 pages, 504 kB)
UWFDM-1001 Impact of Lunar Volatiles Produced During 3He Mining Activities; G.L. Kulcinski, I.N. Sviatoslavsky, L.J. Wittenberg, January 1996 [Presented at the 34th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit, Reno, NV, 15-18 January 1996]. (12 pages, 290 kB)
UWFDM-1128 The Development of Lunar 3He Resources: Near-Term Applications and Long-Term Prospects; G.L. Kulcinski, R.P. Ashley, J.F. Santarius, G. Piefer, K.M. Subramanian, July 2000 [presented at the 4th International Conference on Exploration and Utilisation of the Moon, Noordwijk, The Netherlands, 10-15 July 2000]. (7 pages, 232 kB)
UWFDM-1131 Nuclear Power Without Radioactive Waste - The Promise of Lunar Helium-3; G.L. Kulcinski and H.H. Schmitt, July 2000 [presented at the Second Annual Lunar Development Conference, ``Return to the Moon II'', 20-21 July 2000, Las Vegas NV]. (9 pages, 228 kB)
WCSAR-TR-AR3-8810-7 Energy Requirements for Helium-3 Mining Operations on the Moon; G.L. Kulcinski, I.N. Sviatoslavsky, J.F. Santarius, L.J. Wittenberg, E.N. Cameron, T.M. Crabb, M.K. Jacobs, January 1988 [presented at the Fifth Symposium on Space Nuclear Power Systems, Albuquerque NM, 11-14 January 1988]. (21 pages, 7.0 MB)
WCSAR-TR-AR3-9107-2 Fusion Power from Lunar Resources; G.L. Kulcinski, H.H. Schmitt, October 1991 [Published in Fusion Technology, Special Issue on DHe3 Fusion, Vol. 21 (4) 2221-2229]. (11 pages, 1.6 MB)
WCSAR-TR-AR3-9201-5 Environmental Aspects of Lunar Helium-3 Mining; G.L. Kulcinski, E.N. Cameron, W.D. Carrier III, H.H. Schmitt, January 1992 [prepared for Space 92, The Third International Conference on Engineering, Construction, and Operations in Space, 31 May-4 June 1992, Denver CO]. (13 pages, 208 kB)
WCSAR-TR-AR3-9304-1 Helium-3 Fusion Reactors - A Clean and Safe Source of Energy in the 21st Century; G.L. Kulcinski, April 1993 [presented at the 9th National Space Symposium, Colorado Springs CO, 13-16 April 1993]. (26 pages, 1.9 MB)
The Development of Lunar 3He Resources: Near-Term Applications and Long-Term Prospects;
G.L. Kulcinski, R.P. Ashley, J.F. Santarius, G. Piefer, K.M. Subramanian,
July 2000 [presented at the 4th International Conference on Exploration and Utilisation of the Moon, Noordwijk, The Netherlands, 10-15 July 2000]. (23 pages, 953 kB)
Using Lunar Helium-3 to Generate Nuclear Power Without the Production of Nuclear Waste;
G.L. Kulcinski,
May 2001 [presented at the 20th International Space Development Conference, Albuquerque NM, May 24-28, 2001]. (20 pages, 1.2 MB)
WCSAR-TR-AR3-8809-2 Lunar Surface Mining for Automated Acquisition of Helium 3: Methods, Processes, and Equipment; Y.T. Li and L.J. Wittenberg, September 1988. (28 pages, 1.1 MB)
UWFDM-1110 Investigation of Lunar Pickup-Ion Dynamics; Matthew J. Malecki, October 1999. (9 pages, 125 kB)
UWFDM-764 Lunar He3, Fusion Propulsion, and Space Development; J.F. Santarius, June 1988 (revised August 1988) [Second Conference on Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century (NASA Conf. Pub. 3166, Vol. 2 (1992) 459]. (31 pages, 1.4 MB)