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

FTI Publications

Results: 1 to 40 of 81 order by: UWFDM↑ Author Title Date
1   2  3 

UWFDM-676   Lunar Source of He-3 for Commercial Fusion Power; L.J. Wittenberg, J.F. Santarius and G.L. Kulcinski, March 1986 [published in Fusion Technology 10, 167 (1986)]. (37 pages, 1.6 MB)

UWFDM-742   Helium-3 Fueling Concepts for Magnetically Confined Fusion; L.J. Wittenberg, October 1987 [Presented at the 12th Symposium on Fusion Engineering, 12-16 October 1987, Monterey CA]. (6 pages, 707 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)

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-769   Terrestrial Sources of Helium-3 Fusion Fuel - A Trip to the Center of the Earth; Layton J. Wittenberg, October 1988 (revised November 1988)  [presented at the 8th Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy, 9-13 October 1988, Salt Lake City UT]. (7 pages, 933 kB)

UWFDM-794   Astrofuel - An Energy Source for the 21st Century; J.F. Santarius and G.L. Kulcinski, July 1989 [Wisconsin Professional Engineer 30:6 (1989) 14]. (14 pages, 456 kB)

UWFDM-814   Pellet Fueling of Helium-3 Enclosed in Li and Be Shells; Layton J. Wittenberg, October 1989 [Presented at the 13th Symposium on Fusion Engineering, 2-6 October 1989, Knoxville TN]. (7 pages, 544 kB)

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-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)

UWFDM-961   The Early Sun: Precursor to Helium and Neon Isotopes in the Earth; L.J. Wittenberg, July 1994 [oral presentation at the Eighth International Conference on Geochronology and Isotope Geology, June 5-11, 1994, Berkeley CA]. (24 pages, 459 kB)

UWFDM-967   Non-Lunar 3He Resources; L.J. Wittenberg, July 1994 (revised July 1994)  [presented at the Second Wisconsin Symposium on Helium-3 and Fusion Power, 19-21 July 1993, Madison WI]. (30 pages, 600 kB)

UWFDM-972   Advanced-Fuel Heat Flux, Power Density and Direct Conversion Issues; J.F. Santarius, November 1994 [Presented at the Sixth International Toki Conference, Toki-City, Japan, 29 November - 2 December 1994; published in Fusion Technology 27 (April 1995)]. (7 pages, 744 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-1003   A Current Bibliography of Helium-3 Research; S.W. White, January 1996. (143 pages, 8.0 MB)

UWFDM-1062   Could Advanced Fusion Fuels Be Used with Today's Technology?; J.F. Santarius, G.L. Kulcinski, L.A. El-Guebaly, H.Y. Khater, January 1998 [presented at Fusion Power Associates Annual Meeting, August 27-29, 1997, Aspen CO; Journal of Fusion Energy, Vol. 17, No. 1, 1998, p. 33]. (18 pages, 828 kB)

UWFDM-1093   Net Energy Payback and CO2 Emissions from Helium-3 Fusion and Wind Electrical Power Plants; Scott W. White, December 1998 [Ph.D. thesis]. (182 pages, 7.9 MB)

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-1103   Helium-3 on the Moon for Fusion Energy: the Persian Gulf of the 21st Century; L.A. Taylor and G.L. Kulcinski, May 1999 [published in Solar System Research, Vol. 33, No. 5, 1999, pp. 338-345]. [more]

UWFDM-1110   Investigation of Lunar Pickup-Ion Dynamics; Matthew J. Malecki, October 1999. (9 pages, 125 kB)

UWFDM-1120   Solar-Wind Hydrogen at the Lunar Poles; H.H. Schmitt, G.L. Kulcinski, J.F. Santarius, J. Ding, M.J. Malecki, M.J. Zalewski, February 2000 [Presented at SPACE 2000, The Seventh International Conference and Exposition on Engineering, Construction, Operations, and Business in Space, Albuquerque NM, 27 February - 2 March 2000; published in the Proceedings, pp. 653-660]. (11 pages, 204 kB)

UWFDM-1121   Source and Implications of Large Lunar Basin-Forming Objects; H.H. Schmitt, March 2000 [Presented at the 31st Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, Houston TX, 13-17 March 2000]. (4 pages, 83 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)

UWFDM-1187   Lunar Cataclysm? Depends On What ``Cataclysm'' Means; Harrison H. Schmitt, March 2001 [Paper \#1133, 32nd Lunar and Planetary Conference, 12-16 March 2001, Houston TX]. (4 pages, 537 kB)

UWFDM-1189   A Lunar Field Geologist's Perspective 30 Years Later: Shocking Revelations About the Moon, Mars and Earth; Harrison H. Schmitt, October 2002 [2002 G.K. Gilbert Lecture, Annual Meeting and Exposition of the Geological Society of America, Planetary Geology Division, 27-30 October 2002, Denver CO]. (11 pages, 1.2 MB)

UWFDM-1190   Return to the Moon; Harrison H. Schmitt, December 2002 [Accepted essay for a forthcoming book, ``Our Worlds 2,'' edited by Alan Stern]. (10 pages, 907 kB)

UWFDM-1191   Business Approach To Lunar Base Activation; Harrison H. Schmitt, December 2002 [accepted by the Space Technology and Applications International Forum (STAIF-2003), 2-5 February 2003, Albuquerque NM]. (8 pages, 750 kB)

UWFDM-1192   Business Context of Space Tourism; Harrison H. Schmitt, December 2002 [accepted by the Space Technology and Applications International Forum (STAIF-2003), 2-5 February 2003, Albuquerque NM]. (6 pages, 594 kB)

UWFDM-1214   A Passively Proliferation-Proof Fusion Power Plant; J.F. Santarius, G.L. Kulcinski, L.A. El-Guebaly, November 2002 [presented at the 15th ANS Topical Meeting on Technology of Fusion Energy, 17-21 November 2002, Washington DC; published in Fusion Science and Technology 44, 289 (2003)]. (8 pages, 669 kB)

UWFDM-1291   A Strategy for D-3He Fusion Development; J.F. Santarius, G.L. Kulcinski, G.H. Miley, June 2006 [presented at the ANS Annual Meeting, 4-8 June 2006, Reno NV]. (5 pages, 657 kB) [more]

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)

FPA-94-4   The Early Sun: Precursor to Helium and Neon Isotopes in the Earth; L.J. Wittenberg, July 1994 [oral presentation at the Eighth International Conference on Geochronology and Isotope Geology, June 5-11, 1994, Berkeley CA (also UWFDM-961)].

FPA-94-5   Non-Lunar 3He Resources; L.J. Wittenberg, July 1994 [presented at the Second Wisconsin Symposium on Helium-3 and Fusion Power, 19-21 July 1993, Madison WI; addendum added July 1994 (also UWFDM-967)].

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-AR3-8708   Titanium in Lunar Regolith and Its Use in Mining Site Selection; E.N. Cameron, August 1987.

Results: 1 to 40 of 81 order by: UWFDM↑ Author Title Date
1   2  3