The need and prospects for improved fusion reactors

Conceptual fusion reactor studies over the past 10–15 yr have projected systems that may be too large, complex, and costly to be of commercial interest. One main direction for improved fusion reactors points toward smaller, higher-power-density approaches. First-order economic issues (i.e., unit direct cost and cost of electricity) are used to support the need for more compact fusion reactors. The results of a number of recent conceptual designs of reversed-field pinch, spheromak, and tokamak fusion reactors are summarized as examples of more compact approaches. While a focus has been placed on increasing the fusion-power-core mass power density beyond the minimum economic threshold of 100–200 kWe/tonne, other means by which the overall attractiveness of fusion as a long-term energy source are also addressed.Nomenclature a Plasma minor radius at outboard equatorial plane (m) - A Plasma aspect ratioR _T /a - AC Annual charges ($/yr) - b Plasma minor radius in vertical direction (m) - B Magentic field at plasma or blanket (T) - B _c Magnetic field at the coil (T) - B Toroidal magnetic field (T) - B Poloidal magnetic field (T) - BOP Balance of plant - C Coil - COE Cost of electricity (mills/kWeh) - CRFPR Compact RFP reactor - CT Compact torus (FRC or spheromak) - c _FPC Unit cost of fusion power core ($/kg) - DC Direct cost ($) - DZP Dense Z-pinch - E Escalation rate (1/yr) - EDC Escalation during construction ($) - ET Elongated tokamak - F Annual fuel charges ($/yr) - FC Component of UDC not strongly dependent or FPC size ($/kWe) - FW First wall - FPC Fusion power core - f _Aux Fraction of gross electric power recirculated to BOP - f ₁ (IC+IDC+EDC)/DC - f ₂ (O&M + SCR + F)/AC - IC Indirect cost ($) - IDC Interest during construction ($) - I _w Neutron first-wall loading (MW/m²) - i Toroidal plasma current (MA) - j Plasma current density, I/a² - k _B Boltzmann constant, 1.602(10)^–16 (J/keV) - LWR Light-water (fission) reactor - MPD Mass power density 1000P_E/M_FPC (kWe/tonne) - M _N Blanket energy multiplication of 14.1-MeV neutron energy - M _FPC Mass of fusion power core (tonne) - n Plasma density (m^–3) or toroidal MHD mode number - O&M Annual operating and maintenance cost ($/yr) - p _f Plant availability factor - PFD Poloidal field dominated (CTs, RFP, DZP) - P Construction time (yr) - P_TH Thermal power (MWt) - P _E Net electric power (1-)P _ET (MWe) - P_ET Total gross electric power (MWe) - p_f Fusion power (MW) - q Tokamak safety factor (B /B _gq )(a/R _T ) - q _e EngineeringQ value, 1/e - R _T Major toroidal radius (m) - RFP Reversed-field pinch - RPE Reactor plant equipment (Account 22) - S Shield - SCR Annual spare component cost ($/yr) - SSR Second stability region for the tokamak - S/T/H Stellarator/torsatron/heliotron - ST Spherical tokamak or spherical torus - T Plasma temperature (keV) - TDC Total direct cost ($) - TOC Total overnight cost ($) - UDC Unit direct cost,TDC/10 ³ P _E ($/kWe) - V _p Plasma volume (m³) - W _p Plasma energy (GJ) - W _B Magnetic field energy (GJ) - Magnetic utilization efficiency, 2nk_BT/(B ²/2₀) - ₀ Permeability of free space, 4(10)^–7 H/m - XE Plasma confinement efficiency, a²/4_E - _e Plasma energy confinement time - _p Overall plant efficiency, _TH(1-) - _TH Thermal conversion efficiency - _FPC AverageFPC mass density (tonne/m³) - Plasma vertical elongation factor,b/a - Thickness of allFPC engineering structure surround plasma (m) - Total recirculating power fraction, (P _ET-P _E)/P _ET, or inverse aspect ratioa/R _T This work was performed under the auspices of USDOE, Office of Fusion Energy.     

Maintenance Method for Tokamak Fusion Reactors with Downward Access to Torus Inboard Structures

A concept of tokamak fusion reactor maintenance is presented. Reactor structures and maintenance machines are arranged so that the component inside a shielding structure can be replaced through the hatches located on the upper side of the torus shielding structure. The plasma vacuum boundary is constituted by the inside wall of the shielding structure. The magnet vacuum chamber contains two toroidal magnets in a single room, so that strong support structures can be placed between these toroidal magnets. A merit of this reactor is that the inboard reactor structures are accessible with keeping the magnet cryogenic condition and without disassembling any major reactor components. The practicability of this method will depend on the time required to move the blanket segments in the toroidal direction and to weld pipes by remote handling. A number of ideas for reducing this time are presented.     

Radiological aspects of fusion reactor safety: Risk constraints in severe accidents

A methodology is proposed for determination of the constraints on severe accidents in lithium cooled fusion reactors, based on the potential hazards associated with such accidents. The method utilizes a probabilistic approach to risk calculation. The most effective mechanism for activation product release is found to be volatilization of structure as a result of lithium fires. Several factors were found to influence the consequence of lithium fires, most notably the reactor structural material type and total volume. It is concluded that the consequences of estimated maximum possible release from a properly designed fusion reactor are substantially less than the maximum light water reactor accident consequences.     

Conceptual Designs of Tokamak Fusion Reactors

Tokamak fusion reactor design studies conducted in JAERI with support from national laboratories, universities and industries in the fifteen years since 1973 to the present are described. These studies gave considerable impact on the national and international fusion programs.

From the proposal of He-cooled Li²0 blanket for fusion power reactor in 1973 to the most recent proposal of easily replaceable guard limiter concept to the ITER project, a number of unique proposals that have influenced the world wide fusion reactor design studies are introduced. They are described in the context of major fusion reactor design efforts and design methodology developments of the past fifteen years.     

Design Study of Swimming Pool Type Tokamak Reactor (SPTR)

In order to relieve the difficulties of repair and maintenance and to make the reactor size compact, a concept of tokamak reactor which is installed in a water pool has been proposed. Preliminary design study of the concept was carried out. As the result of this study the following advantages over conventional tokamak reactors are shown; The size of TF coil can be considerably reduced while retaining sufficient space for repair and maintenance because a solid shield is eliminated. Disassembling and reassembling of vacuum vessel seems to be done with realistic remote handling technique. The problem caused by radiation streaming can be considerably eased. Radioactive waste disposal is reduced considerably because a solid shield is eliminated.     

A low wall-loading DEMO reactor design with high priority for early and reliable realization of a tokamak fusion reactor over the cost performance

Based on scientific databases adopted for designing ITER plasmas and on the advancement of fusion nuclear technology from the recent R&D program, a low wall-loading DEMO fusion reactor has been designed, where high priority has been given to the early and reliable realization of a tokamak fusion plasma over the cost performance. Since the major radius of this DEMO reactor is chosen to be 10 m, plasma ignition is achievable with a low fusion power of 0.8 GW and an operation period of 4–5 hours is available only with inductive current drive. The low ignition power makes it possible to adopt a first wall with an austenitic stainless steel, for which significant databases and operating experience exists, due to its use in the presence of neutron irradiation in fission reactors. In step with development of advanced materials, a step-wise increase of the fusion power seems to be feasible and realistic, because this DEMO reactor has the potential to produce a fusion power of 5 GW.     

Commercial objectives,technology transfer,and systems analysis for fusion power development

Fusion is an essentially inexhaustible source of energy that has the potential for economically attractive commercial applications with excellent safety and environmental characteristics. The primary focus for the fusion-energy development program is the generation of centralstation electricity. Fusion has the potential, however, for many other applications. The fact that a large fraction of the energy released in a DT fusion reaction is carried by high-energy neutrons suggests potentially unique applications. These include breeding of fissile fuels, production of hydrogen and other chemical products, transmutation or burning of various nuclear or chemical wastes, radiation processing of materials, production of radioisotopes, food preservation, medical diagnosis and medical treatment, and space power and space propulsion. In addition, fusion R&D will lead to new products and new markets.Each fusion application must meet certain standards of economic and safety and environmental attractiveness. For this reason, economics on the one hand, and safety and environment and licensing on the other hand, are the two primary criteria for setting long-range commercial fusion objectives. A major function of systems analysis is to evaluate the potential of fusion against these objectives and to help guide the fusion R&D program toward practical applications. The transfer of fusion technology and skills from the national laboratories and universities to industry is the key to achieving the long-range objective of commercial fusion applications.     

Magnetic fusion commercial power plants

Toroidal magnetic systems offer the best opportunity to make a commercial fusion power plant. They have, between them, all the features needed; however, no one system yet meets the ideal requirements. The tokamak is the most advanced system, and the proposed International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) and Tokamak Physics Experiment (TPX) will build upon the existing program to prepare for an advanced tokamak demonstration plant. Complementary toroidal systems such as the spherical torus, stellarator, reversed-field pinch, field-reversed configuration, and spheromak offer, between them, potential advantages in each area and should be studied in a balanced fusion development program.     

Selection of a toroidal fusion reactor concept for a magnetic fusion production reactor

The basic fusion driver requirements of a toroidal materials production reactor are considered. The tokamak, stellarator, bumpy torus, and reversed-field pinch are compared with regard to their demonstrated performance, probable near-term development, and potential advantages and disadvantages if used as reactors for materials production. Of the candidate fusion drivers, the tokamak is determined to be the most viable for a near-term production reactor. Four tokamak reactor concepts (TORFA/FED-R, AFTR/ZEPHYR, Riggatron, and Superconducting Coil) of approximately 500-MW fusion power are compared with regard to their demands on plasma performance, required fusion technology development, and blanket configuration characteristics. Because of its relatively moderate requirements on fusion plasma physics and technology development, as well as its superior configuration of production blankets, the TORFA/FED-R type of reactor operating with a fusion power gain of about 3 is found to be the most suitable tokamak candidate for implementation as a near-term production reactor.This paper represents work carried out from 1980 to 1982 and was in draft form in 1982. It was received for publication with only minor editing from its 1982 version (except for Tables II and III and Fig. 1), explaining the fact that some of the material is dated.     

Status and Objectives of Tokamak Systems for Fusion Research

This report had its beginnings at the Third International Symposium on Toroidal Plasma Confinement held in Garching/Munich, Federal Republic of Germany, March 26–30, 1973. The American scientists who attended this conference agreed to assist in preparing a summary of the status of the field. Since that time, the authors of this report have had the opportunity to incorporate progress reported at the VI European Conference on Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, held in Moscow, U.S.S.R., from July 29 to August 3, 1973. The report has been available previously only as U.S. Atomic Energy Commission Report WASH-1295 (1974). It was the first comprehensive survey of the status of the tokamak fusion research concept, which was to become the cornerstone of the world fusion effort for the next quarter century. It provided the basis for the rapid buildup of the U.S. tokamak program during the latter half of the 1970's and is published now to archive its historical significance.     

Research on High Pressure Gas Injection As a Method of Fueling, Disruption Mitigation and Plasma Termination for Future Tokamak Reactors

High-pressure gas injection has proved to be an effective disruption mitigation tech- nique in DIII-D tokamak experiments. If the method can be applied in future tokamak reactors not only for disruption mitigation but also for plasma termination and fueling, it will have an attractive advantage over the pellet and liquid injection from the viewpoint of economy and engineering design. In order to investigate the feasibility of this option, a study has been carried out with relevant parameters for conveying tubes of different geometrical sizes and for different gases. These parameters include pressure drop, lagger time after the valve＇s opening, gas diffusion in an ultra-high vacuum condition, and particle number contour.     

可控核聚变与国际热核实验堆（ITER）计划

介绍了我国能源的基本隋况,核聚变能和可控核聚变的基本原理,以及国际热核聚变实验堆ITER的历史与现状。对我国磁约束核聚变的研究发展历程做了简要的回顾。     

A Molecular Dynamics Study on the Dust-Plasma/Wall Interactions in the EAST Tokamak

The interactions between the W nano-dust and deuterium plasma at different locations of the EAST tokamak are simulated using a molecular dynamics code. It is shown that nano-dust particles, with the radius, R d , ～5 nm, can exist for at least several nano-seconds under the interactions from the ions without being ablated in some specific places of the tokamak edge plasma, while those with R d ≥25 nm may be ablated if the plasma temperature T～ 50 eV and density n～10 19 m 3 . In addition, the collisions of tungsten nano-dust grains with a tungsten wall at 100 m/s or 1000 m/s impinging speeds are simulated. It is demonstrated that the dust will stick to the wall, and the collision will not cause substantial damage to the wall, but it may be able to cause partial destruction of the dust grains themselves depending on their incident speeds.     

聚变发电反应堆双冷锂铅包层热工水力学设计与分析

依据结构设计和中子学计算结果给出了聚变发电反应堆FDS-Ⅱ双冷锂铅(DLL)包层热工水力学设计方案。采用数值计算软件对液态金属增殖区LiPb流场和第一壁热-结构等进行了模拟,并对功率转换系统的热效率进行了计算。通过分析评估,证实该包层热工水力学方案能较好地实现FDS-Ⅱ聚变发电反应堆预期目标。     

Fuel provision for nonbreeding deuterium-tritium fusion reactors

Nontritium-breeding D-T reactors have decisive advantages in minimum size, unit cost, variety of applications, and ease of heat removal over reactors using any other fusion cycle, and significant advantages in environmental and safety characteristics over breeding D-T reactors. Considerations of relative energy production demonstrate that the most favorable source of tritium for a widely deployed system of nontritium-breeding D-T reactors is the very large (10 GW thermal) semicatalyzed-deuterium (SCD), or sub-SCD reactor, where none of the escaping³He (> 95%) or tritium (< 25%) is reinjected for burn-up. Feasibility of the ignited SCD tokamak reactor requires spatially averaged betas of 15 to 20% with a magnetic field at the TF coils of 12–13 T.On leave from Dept. of Electronic Engineering, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.     

Approach for fusion reactor safety and fusion safety work in Russia

Main directions of work on experimental fusion reactors safety assurance in Russia are given. Work on safety includes: the elaboration of the main criteria and principles of safety assurance, the development of the first priority standards in safety on the basis of the fission experience and international safety documents requirements, fusion reactor safety analysis, and work to provide a base for the standards development and for the safety analysis activity. The results of some work on fusion safety are presented. They include: assessments of safety and reliability of Liquid Metal Cooling System draft design, evaluations of the buildings and equipment response on external dynamic influences, and analysis of radiological situation in th environment as a result of tritium-containing dust release.     

The Alignment and Assembly for EAST Tokamak Device

EAST （HT-7U） is a large fusion experimental device. It is a full superconducting tokamak with 1 MA of plasma current, 1000 s of plasma duration, high elongation and triangularity. It mainly consists of superconducting magnets of poloidal and toroidal field （PF ＆ TF）, vacuum vessel （VV）, thermal radiation shield （TRS） and cryostat vessel （CV）. The significant difficulty for assembly of EAST is tight installation tolerances, which are in the order of several tenth of a millimeter. In particular, the alignment of plasma facing components to the magnetic axis of the device is less than ±0.5 mm. At present, a reasonable assembly process of EAST has been defined, and based on it, the alignment method for EAST, including the survey control network, the location of the main components in different directions, the magnetic axis determination and the accurate positioning of the plasma facing components inside of the vacuum vessel and so on, has been defined by using the sophisticated optical metrology system （SOMS）. This paper describes the assembly procedure of EAST and the installation tolerances associated with the main components. Meanwhile, how to establish the assembly survey control network, magnetic axis determination methods, are introduced in detail.     

The Procedure for Assembling the EAST Tokamak

Due to the complicated constitution and high precision requirements of the EAST superconducting tokamak, a meticulous assembling procedure and measurement scheme must be established. The big size and mass of the EAST machine＇s components and complicated configuration with tight installation tolerances call for a highly careful assembling procedure. The assembling procedure consists of three main sub-procedures for the assembling of the base, of the tori of the VV, the vacuum vessel TS and the TF, and of the peripheral parts respectively. Before the assembly, a reference framework has been set up by means of an industrial measurement system with reference fiducial targets fixed on the wall of the test hall. In this paper, the assembling procedure is described in detail, the survey control system of the assembly is discussed, and progress in the assembly work is also reported.     

小球形托卡马克嬗变堆堆芯参数分析

本文探讨作为聚变能中间应用的一种可行性 :利用低环径比球状托卡马克堆的高能聚变中子嬗变核电站的核废物。计算了堆芯等离子体物理参数、中心柱增益并进行参数学分析、几种可能的电流驱动方案比较和中心柱冷却方案设计及其计算。为了减轻偏滤器和第一壁材料的要求 ,我们有意选择较低堆芯物理参数 ,较低的中子壁负载运行。结果表明中心柱增益较低。建议从理论上探索研究由球状托卡马克等离子体顺磁性 ,建立一个无力球马克极向电流壳为中心区提供大部分或全部Bt,旨在建立无中心柱的低径比球状托卡马堆。如果可行 ,它的性能将会大大改善     

托卡马克聚变中子源的数值模型研究

托卡马克(Tokamak)聚变装置中子学分析中,聚变中子源描述是重要的输入参数,其准确性直接影响分析结果的可靠性。通过分析ITER和欧洲聚变示范堆(EU DEMO)中子学分析中所采用的聚变中子源模型,提出了一种完整描述Tokamak中L-mode、H-mode等离子体的D-D、D-T聚变中子源的数值模型。在中国聚变工程实验堆(CFETR)的工程集成设计平台上,编写了基于蒙特卡罗算法的程序SCG求解该数值模型,实现了读取(零维)等离子体参数、输出可供典型中子学软件MCNP直接读取的中子源定义文件的功能。以CFETR氦冷球床包层的中子学分析模型为基准,在相同的L-mode等离子体D-T聚变工况下,相较于采用EU DEMO源子程序,采用本模型计算得到的中子壁负载差异最大值为2.02%,包层氚增殖率差异为0.18%,全堆能量增益因子的差异为0.23%。结果表明,本模型与其他源描述的差异较小,可应用于CFETR的中子学分析。