ICTP COLLOQUIUM

 

 

16:00, Thursday, 13 August 2009

Main Lecture Hall, Leonardo Building

 

Professor Swadesh Mahajan

Institute for Fusion Studies

University of Texas at Austin

 

 

Fusion-Fission Hybrids—Maturing of an Old Idea

 

 

The idea of a fusion-fission hybrid, a marriage of two complicated technologies, is just about beginning to attain maturity at a pre-engineering, conceptual architectural level. The motivation comes from a desire to precipitate possible rejuvenation of nuclear fission energy—the only tried and tested non-carbon energy source that could be rapidly ramped up to meet the global warming challenge.

 

Three major ideas spanning both fusion and fission, building on the impressive achievements of world-wide fusion research, and that have gone into the making of the University of Texas Scientific-Architectural Plan (UTSAP) for a Hybrid will be motivated and presented.