THERMODYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF DEUTERIUM-BASED NUCLEAR FUSION REACTIONS

17th International Conference on Fundamental and Applied Aspects of Physical Chemistry (Proceedings, Volume II) (2024) [K-01-SL, pp. 443-446]

AUTHOR(S) / AUTOR(I): Silvano Tosti  

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DOI: 10.46793/Phys.Chem24II.443T

ABSTRACT / SAŽETAK:

In the nuclear physics approach, the feasibility of D-based nuclear fusion reactions is studied through the evaluation of their reaction rate (reactivity) and their degree of exothermicity expressed by the Q-value, a parameter linked to the amount of the energy released by the process. Under the thermodynamic point of view, these analyses miss the evaluation of the entropy that, indeed, can affect significantly the feasibility of nuclear fusion reaction carried out at very high temperatures. In fusion reactions the temperature acts as a very powerful amplifier of the entropic term (- T ΔS) that, at the temperature of tokamaks (≈ 108 K), may reduce significantly the thermodynamic spontaneity of these processes.

The effect of the temperature on both kinetics (nuclear reactivity) and thermodynamics (ΔG) of the D-based reactions of interest for the magnetically confined nuclear fusion has been investigated. The entropy of the reacting D-based plasma is evaluated via the Sakur-Tetrode equation and the results of this study confirm that the DT reaction is the most promising fusion reaction to be realized in tokamak devices. At the temperature of 1.5 ×108 K (≈ 13 keV), the DT reaction exhibits a large thermodynamic spontaneity (ΔG = – 16.0 MeV) and its reactivity is of the order of 10-22 m3/s, a value capable of guaranteeing the tritium burning rate needed to operate the nuclear plants under tritium self-sufficiency conditions and with a net energy production.

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