ATOMKI Közlemények 25. (1983)
1. szám - D. Berényi: Research on atomic collision processes and its importance for future energy sources
Mi ATOMKI Report В/l (1983) RESEARCH ON ATOMIC COLLISION PROCESSES AND ITS IMPORTANCE TOR FUTURE ENERGY SOURCES* D. Berényi Institute of Nuclear Research of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (ATOMKI), Debrecen, Hungary Abstract First the energy claims and resources of the society will be shortly surveyed, including one of the most important one, the controlled nuclear fusion. Then the importance of the atomic collision data to solve the different tasks in realisation of the controlled fusion processes will be outlined. Finally some results obtained in this field in ATOMKI (Debrecen), Hungary will be shortly presented. 1. Energy needs and possibilities for their satisfaction 1.1. Energy demand of the world presently and in the future. It is well-known that the energy consumption of the world is increasing^ contrary to the measures to economize energy. It seems to be inevitable, first of all, because of the energy demand of the developing countries. The actual estimations are rather different but several percents per year increase seems to be very probable till 2000 and after it (for these problems in detail see e.g. ref. 1-3). At the same time, while the needs are increasing, the resources of the fossile fuels (crude oil, natural gas, coal), which cover the present world demand for energy (except some percents from hydroelectric pcwer and nuclear fission reactors) are decreasing. The extent of the resources for the different fuels, of course, are rather different e.g. for coal the reserves are substantial but the geographical share of them is very capricious . In such a situation, the search for new sources of energy and the research on the phenomena which are important for energy generation by new methods are of high priority from the point of view of the mankind. 1.2. Search for new sources of energy. There are several candidates for the new energy sources to satisfy the future energy demand (see some detaile e.g. in ref. 2 and 4). Such new possibilities for energy production are: TUDOM/ * Invited talk on 2nd Joint Meeting of Roland Eötvös Phys. Soc. and the Austrian Vacuum Society. Brunn am Gebirge, Austria, Oct. 27-29, 1981 : íMi У