Fusion offers the prospect of virtually unlimited energy. The United States and many nations around the world have made enormous progress toward achieving fusion energy. With ITER scheduled to go online within a decade and demonstrate controlled fusion ten years later, now is the right time for the United States to develop plans to benefit from its investment in burning plasma research and take steps to develop fusion electricity for the nation's future energy needs. At the request of the Department of Energy, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine organized a committee to develop a strategic plan for U.S. fusion research. The final report's two main recommendations are: (1) The United States should remain an ITER partner as the most cost-effective way to gain experience with a burning plasma at the scale of a power plant. (2) The United States should start a national program of accompanying research and technology leading to the construction of a compact pilot plant that produces electricity from fusion at the lowest possible capital cost.

Resulting from ongoing, international research into fusion processes, the International Tokamak Experimental Reactor (ITER) is a major step in the quest for a new energy source.The first graduate-level text to cover the details of ITER, Controlled Fusion and Plasma Physics introduces various aspects and issues of recent fusion research activities through the shortest access path. The distinguished author breaks down the topic by first dealing with fusion and then concentrating on the more complex subject of plasma physics. The book begins with the basics of controlled fusion research, followed by discussions on tokamaks, reversed field pinch (RFP), stellarators, and mirrors. The text then explores ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) instabilities, resistive instabilities, neoclassical tearing mode, resistive wall mode, the Boltzmann equation, the Vlasov equation, and Landau damping. After covering dielectric tensors of cold and hot plasmas, the author discusses the physical mechanisms of wave heating and noninductive current drive. The book concludes with an examination of the challenging issues of plasma transport by turbulence, such as magnetic fluctuation and zonal flow. Controlled Fusion and Plasma Physics clearly and thoroughly promotes intuitive understanding of the developments of the principal fusion programs and the relevant fundamental and advanced plasma physics associated with each program.

This carefully researched book presents facts and arguments showing, beyond a doubt, that nuclear fusion power will not be technically feasible in time to satisfy the world's urgent need for climate-neutral energy. The author describes the 70-year history of nuclear fusion; the vain attempts to construct an energy-generating nuclear fusion power reactor, and shows that even in the most optimistic scenario nuclear fusion, in spite of the claims of its proponents, will not be able to make a sizable contribution to the energy mix in this century, whatever the outcome of ITER. This implies that fusion power will not be a factor in combating climate change, and that the race to save the climate with carbon-free energy will have been won or lost long before the first nuclear fusion power station comes on line. Aimed at the general public as well as those whose decisions directly affect energy policy, this book will be a valuable resource for informing future debates.

A graduate level text treating transport theory, an essential element of theoretical plasma physics.

This book contains the papers presented at the Course on "Tokamak Startup - Problems and Scenarios Related to the Transient Phases of a Thermonuclear Fusion Reactor" which was held in Erice, July 14-20, 1985. The fact that the critical startup and transient phases of a tokamak reactor are now the specific subject of a comprehensive international gathering of fusion specialists seems indicative of the substantial pro gress made in recent years towards attaining controlled ignition of a nuclear fusion fuel, i.e. towards demonstrating the scientific feasibili ty of controlled thermonuclear fusion. In fact, the steady-state burning phase has attracted so far most of the attention of fusion physicists and engineers, as it is conceptually more rewarding, and theoretically easier to handle. However, as for many large engineering systems, - nuclear fis- ... ':1' " . 10 ' ... Entrance to San Rocco's lecturing hall v sion power plants, or aerospace crafts, for example - the major issues of design and operation lie often in the startup, shutdown and power tran sieQt phases, rather than at the full load, or at cruising regimes. In ehoosing the contributions to this 7th Course of Prof. B.

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