1171 * For correspondence. Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 17, No 3, 1171–1176 (2016) Environmental radioactivity WORLD ENERGY ISSUES AND ADVANCED NUCLEAR FUSION M. ZUCCHETTI a,b *, M. AL GHADBAN c , R. TESTONI b a MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, 02 139 Cambridge (MA), USA b Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10 129 Torino, Italy c Faculty of Engineering, Sabratha University, Sabratha, Libya E-mail: massimo.zucchetti@polito.it Abstract. The analysis of the worlds energy needs shows them in historical growth, with the highest per capita demand concentrated in the developed countries. Nuclear Fusion is a candidate as a long- term energy solution, for developed countries. The recent stress on safety by the world community has stimulated the research on other fuel cycles than the Deuterium-Tritium (DT) one, based on ‘advanced’ reactions, such as Deuterium-Helium-3 (D– 3 He). With these cycles, it is not necessary to breed and fuel tritium. The D– 3 He cycle has also a very low presence of fusion neutrons. The plasma coninement requirements for a D– 3 He reactor are more challenging than those for a DT reactor, and 3 He is not currently available on earth. As an important step towards the study of a D– 3 He reactor, a feasibility study of a high-ield D– 3 He experiment of relatively large dimensions and high fusion power, however based on present technologies, has brought to the proposal of the Candor fusion experiment. Terrestrial sources of 3 He are very small. However, a major deposit of 3 He, originally discovered in lunar samples in 1970 was considered by the fusion program in 1986. The 3 He of the moon is contained in the regolith, roughly a million t. A cost and energy balance assessment to feed the Candor experiment has been performed, based upon available data. It turns out that 3 He feed for a large experiment such as Candor can be a good demonstration technological step for lunar D– 3 He mining. The D– 3 He fusion cycle offers strong safety advantages and could be the ultimate response to the environmental requirements for future nuclear power plants. Keywords: nuclear fusion energy, helium-3 ( 3 He), Candor, advanced fuels, lunar mining. AIMS AND BACKGROUND The analysis of the world energy needs shows them in historical growth, with the highest per capita demand concentrated in the developed countries. Future pre- dictions are all consistent, besides of certain scenarios variables, in predicting a trend towards growing energy demand, depletion of fossil fuels, issue of security of supply, increasing environmental concerns. All the trends help to understand the relevance of the problem and the need for both simple and innovative solutions. The current energy economy based on fossil fuels is not sustainable at long term. Alternatives must be concrete, and able to withstand the economic, environ-