The future of nuclear power depends heavily on the effort put into research, experts agreed at the Euroscience Open Forum (ESOF) 2008 taking place in Barcelona, Spain this week.
"Be it in the development of fusion as a source of energy or in technological advances in fission, it is essential that research in the nuclear sector carries on," said Friedrich Wagner, President of the European Physical Society.
Wagner´s view was echoed by Dr. David Ward, a researcher working on fusion at the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority in Culham. He pointed to the fact that current investments in energy research and developments (R&D) only amount to the equivalent of less than 0.1 per cent of the energy market value. "Without putting more resources into R&D, we will never reduce our reliance on fossil fuels," he commented.
The call for renewed investments and efforts in nuclear research comes as Sir David King, the former UK Chief Scientific Advisor, warned participants that energy security will become a key factor in tackling the population growth problem, which he described as mankind´s main challenge for the 21st century.
"This population explosion will present a series of interconnected challenges that are qualitatively different from those facing humanity at the start of the twentieth century - ranging from food and energy security to increased terrorism and the impacts of climate change," he said.
Two panel sessions organized by the UK´s Institute of Physics looked at future prospects for fission and fusion technologies in Europe and beyond.
Dr. William Nuttall, Senior Lecturer in Technology Policy at Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, spoke of the need for smaller nuclear plants that are cheaper and more flexible to develop as a way to address nuclear´s weak points, i.e., high capital costs and lengthy construction times. He noted that Russian plans for a floating nuclear power station, and the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor being developed in South Africa are two examples of nuclear research going in the right direction.
Speaking at a session entitled Fusion - Will It Always Be 40 Years Away?, David Campbell, Assistant Deputy Director General for Fusion Science and Technology for the ITER project, illustrated the likely timetable for fusion power development. He said that, according to plans, the experimental, multinational ITER facility to be built in Caradache, France, is expected to be up and running by 2018. After an estimated 20 years of testing, a model fusion reactor called DEMO will then be built, thus inaugurating the era of fusion power.
It might be 40 years or longer before nuclear fusion makes a significant contribution to the world´s energy needs, but if it can be demonstrated that nuclear fusion for power generation is possible, safe and competitively priced it will have been worth the wait, he said.