A Review of 3He Resources and Acquisition for Use as Fusion Fuel

This paper reports that a combination of man-made and natural resources on earth could provide sufficient {sup 3}He fuel for the technological development of D-{sup 3}He fusion reactors. Helium exists in natural gas wells; however, at the current rate of natural gas usage, this resource would provide {lt}5 kg/yr of {sup 3}He. The radioactive decay of {sup 3}H produced in fission production reactors could yield 110 kg of {sup 3}He by the year 2000 if it were retained. Apparently, a large amount of {sup 3}He exists within the earth's mantle, but it is inaccessible. A significant quantity of {sup 3}He, which could be imported to supply a fusion power industry on earth for hundreds of years, exists on the moon. The solar wind has deposited {gt}1 million tonnes of {sup 3}He in the fine regolith that covers the surface of the moon. The presence of this solar wind gas was confirmed by analyses of the lunar regolith samples brought to earth. A strong correlation is noted between the helium retained and the TiO{sub 2} content of the regolith; consequently, remote-sensing data showing high-titanium-bearing soils in the lunar maria areas have been used to locate potentially rich sites for helium extraction.more » Surface photographs of Mare Tranquillitatis have shown that nearly 50% of this mare may be minable and capable of supplying {approximately}7100 tonnes of {sup 3}He. A mobile mining vehicle is proposed for use in the excavation of the soil and the release of the helium and other solar wind gases. The evolved gases would be purified by a combination of permeators and cryogenic techniques to provide a rich resource of H{sub 2}, helium, CO{sub 2}, H{sub 2}O, and N{sub 2}, followed by helium isotopic separation systems.« less

[1]  D. G. Jacobs,et al.  Sources of tritium and its behavior upon release to the environment , 1968 .

[2]  H. Craig,et al.  Excess 3He in deep water on the East Pacific Rise , 1975 .

[3]  A. Metzger,et al.  The distribution of titanium on the lunar surface , 1979 .

[4]  G. Kulcinski,et al.  Lunar Source of 3He for Commercial Fusion Power , 1986 .

[5]  W. J. Burke,et al.  Measurement of the Lunar Photoelectron Layer in the Geomagnetic Tail , 1973 .

[6]  I. Tolstikhin.  Helium isotopes in the earth's interior and in the atmosphere: A degassing model of the earth , 1975 .

[7]  D. E. Emerson,et al.  A determination of the helium 4 content of near‐surface atmospheric air within the continental United States , 1987 .

[8]  G. Thomas,et al.  Mercury's helium exosphere , 1975 .

[9]  J. Geiss,et al.  Abundance ratios of 4He++/³He++ in the solar wind , 1980 .

[10]  S. Komor,et al.  Calcite Crack Cements in Granite from the Siljan Ring, Sweden: Stable Isotopic Results , 1988 .

[11]  Daniel T. Spreng,et al.  Net Energy Analysis and the Energy Requirements of Energy Systems , 1988 .

[12]  G. Kulcinski,et al.  Apollo-L3, an Advanced Fuel Fusion Power Reactor Utilizing Direct and Thermal Energy Conversion , 1991 .

[13]  Layton J. Wittenberg.  Terrestrial Sources of Helium-3 Fusion Fuel - A Trip to the Center of the Earth , 1989 .

[14]  K. A. Holsapple,et al.  Theory and experiments on centrifuge cratering , 1980 .

[15]  J. H. Reynolds,et al.  Rare-gas-rich separates from carbonaceous chondrites , 1976 .

[16]  M Crawford.  U.S. Fusion Program: Struggling to Stay in the Game , 1990, Science.

[17]  G. Olhoeft,et al.  Electrical properties of lunar soil dependence on frequency, temperature and moisture. , 1972 .

[18]  A. Vidal-Madjar,et al.  Deuterium, helium, and the Big-Bang nucleosynthesis , 1984 .