bechtelITER

U.S. Department of Energy. //ITER and the Promise of Fusion Energy//. Princeton, NJ: U.S. Department of Energy, March 2011.  **  Where does the author work, what else has s/he written about, and what are her/his credentials? ** The author of this work is the division of the government responsible for the energy concerns of our country, the United States Department of Energy, (US DOE). There are many other pieces of work composed by this group covering various different energy sources. The credentials of this department are very good, because it is a large collaboration of scientists working together. This really is one of the best sources of information for fusion research, which is why it has been used multiple times. **  What is the main topic or argument of the text? ** The purpose of this text is to present information about the ITER project. The name ITER means “the way” in Latin. This project is a large international fusion experiment aimed at demonstrating the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy. ITER is a critical step between today’s studies of plasma physics and tomorrow’s fusion power plants. ITER is ready to start construction and planned to begin in 2019. The site selected for the project is Cadarache, in southeastern France, and is expected to operate for 20 years. The goal of ITER is to create the first burning plasma; a plasma that is predominately sustained by the power of its own reaction. ITER will provide an essential bridge from previous experiments, which produced up to 1 million watts of fusion heat for time periods approaching one second, to a Demonstration Power Plant (Demo) producing 2,500 million watts of fusion heat – the size of modern electrical plants - (1000 million watts of electricity) continuously with a gain of over 25. The Demo project is predicted to be operational around the year 2035. **  Describe at least three ways that the main topic or argument is fleshed out. ** The main topic of this piece can be fleshed out a few different ways. One can get an idea of what items will be discussed by reading the section titles and can get an even better idea of what is being covered by reading the first sentence of each paragraph. Another quick way to flesh out information is to look at the images and tables throughout the document and their accompanying captions. **  What three quotes capture the critical import of the text? ** “Project partners are China, the European Union, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the United States.” “ITER will produce 500 million watts of fusion power for a period of at least 400 seconds. (This covers the electrical needs for 200,000 average-size homes, assuming 40% efficiency in the conversion of heat to electricity.) The heat produced by ITER will be at least 10 times greater than the external power provided to heat the fusion fuel.” “(Reaction) Payback – About 450:1” **  Explain how the argument and evidence in the text supports your research focus. ** The evidence in this text supports my research focus because this will be the example I focus on for my second project analysis. Many important facts about this project are detailed here. Again the only thing that is not really covered is the cost and current investment.”
 * Full citation. **