Artemis Data Book
2.9来自月球的融合力
月球氦3作为能源，简而言之
The Setting
For the purposes of this discussion, let’s assume that the helium-3 fusion plants have been proved out, and folks are frantically building them, just waiting for us to show up with with tanks full of He³.
The Ingredients of Nuclear Fusion
The names of the ingredients for nuclear fusion reactions — deuterium, tritium, isotopes of helium, sound complicated, but really these are only variations on substances found in everyday life. We’ll assume you understand that atoms are made up of protons, neutrons, and electrons.electons.是非常轻巧的，带负电的位，其围绕原子的边缘嗡嗡作响。通过在原子之间的交易和分享选区进行常规化学反应。例如，当您在空气中燃烧一张纸时，化学反应涉及纸上的一些碳原子，其中来自空气的一些氧原子。反应形成二氧化碳气体，而选矿在改变其轨道时，电位为热量和光线。
Protonsand中子make up an atom’s nucleus. In this discussion, we’re concerned with rearranging the nucleus of an atom; hence the term “nuclear reaction.” Generally, the neutrally charged neutrons keep the positively charged protons from fighting each other. An atom’s nucleus is very tightly bound together, so when we start moving these things around, we’re moving energy around in a big way.
Hydrogen熟悉的东西是通过将其与氧气组成而制作水的熟悉的东西。这是宇宙中最丰富的元素。正常氢有1个质子，没有中子。氘is an isotope of hydrogen that has a neutron next to its lonely proton.
You’re familiar withhelium天然气作为我们用来炸毁小金属和气球的东西。正常氦在其细胞核中有2个质子和2个中子，使其是4的原子量。
现在，如果你踢出一个中子，你得到氦气3。这在非常精力充沛的核反应堆中发生了一次，特别是太阳。通过将氢原子融合在一起，但每万氦原子中的约一个缺少中子，阳光会产生氦。
氦-3在氘中的中子上的淫荡的眼睛施放，如果它有机会，就会抓住它。我们在高温下将氦3引入氘的液体-3给它。
混合物
Helium-3 is used in a reaction with deuterium to produce energy:
This is a nuclear fusion reaction. The deuterium and helium-3 atoms come together to give off a proton and helium-4. The products weigh less than the initial components; the missing mass is converted to energy. 1 kg of helium-3 burned with 0.67 kg of deuterium gives us about 19 megawatt-years of energy output.
D＆D«HE³反应的融合反应时间在约10keV的温度下变得显着，并且约200keV约约200keV。100 kev等，反应堆看起来最佳。
A reactor built to use the D«»He³ reaction would be inherently safe. The worst case failure scenario would not result in any civilian fatalities or significant exposures to radiation.
Note:meandKeVare measures of energy, standing for mega-electron volts and kilo-electron volts, respectively. In nuclear physics, these terms are used to refer to the amount of energy in a nuclear reactor. One electron volt is the energy acquired by one electron falling through a potential of one volt, equal to approximately 1.609 E-19 joule.
The supply
Some helium-3 is available on Earth. It is a by-product of the maintenance of nuclear weapons, which would supply us with about 300 kg of helium-3 and could continue to produce about 15 kg per year. The total supply in the U.S. strategic reserves of helium is abou 29 kg, and another 187 kg is mixed up with the natural gas we have stored; these sources are not renewable at any significant rate.
在1988年的纸张中，Kulcinski等人。（参见下面的参考信息），在月球重新旋转中，太阳风估计了总共1,100,000公吨的氦气-3。由于凝析性通过与陨石的碰撞搅拌，因此我们可能会发现氦3下降到几米的深度。
最高浓度在月球玛丽亚;大约一半的氦-3沉积在玛丽亚覆盖的月球表面的20％。
To extract helium-3 from the lunar soil, we heat the dust to about 600 degrees C.
We get most of the other volatiles out at the same time, so we’ll be heating up the rocks anyway. To get the oxgyen out, we’ll turn up the furnace to about 900 deg C and do some other nasty stuff; but that’s a different story.
The Energy
That 1 million metric tonnes of helium-3, reacted with deuterium, would generate about 20,000 terrawatt-years of thermal energy. The units alone are awesome: a terrawatt-year is one trillion,
10 to 12th power watt-years. To put this into perspective, one 100-watt light bulb will use 100 watt-years of energy in one year.
That’s about 10 times the energy we could get from mining all the fossil fuels on Earth, without the smog and acid rain. If we torched all our uranium in liquid metal fast breeder reactors, we could generate about half this much energy, and have some interesting times storing the waste.
价值
关于25 tonnes of helium-3 would power the United States for 1 year at our current rate of energy consumption. To put it in perspective: that’s about the weight of a fully loaded railroad box car, or a maximum Space Shuttle payload.
为分配经济价值，假设我们假设氦-3将取代美国目前购买电力的燃料。我们仍然拥有所有这些发电厂和分销网络，因此我们不能使用我们支付多少电力。作为这种燃料的替代品，25吨氦3的负荷价值约为750亿美元，或每吨30亿美元。
回报
猜测是我们能做的最好的。让我们假设当我们掀起氦气-3的雪橇 - 3下降时，全世界的需求是每年100吨的东西，人们很乐意支付每吨30亿美元。这使我们每年提供3000亿美元的总收入。
为了将该号码放在视角下：忽略金钱和税收的成本，而且，收入率将在未来10,000年的每天每天都像我们的参考任务一样发射月亮。此时，我们将在月球上耗尽所有氦3，更好地开始思考别的东西。
参考：Kulcinksi，Cameron，Santarius，Sviatoslavsky和Wittenberg，“21世纪月亮的融合能源”。1988.威斯康星大学融合技术研究所。
For more information: Helium-3 as a Source of Energy for the 21rst Century.
