The effect of wall loading limitations and choice of beta on the feasibility of advanced fuel fusion reactors

This paper investigates the effect of wall loading limitations and choice of plasma stability index beta on the feasibility of advanced fuel fusion reactors. Two new conceptual tools are introduced to facilitate this analysis: the “effective reactivity,” which includes all of the reaction-relevant parameters that determine the fusion power density, and the “critical radius,” which is the maximum allowable minor radius of a fusion reactor, beyond which the power generated in the plasma will exceed allowable loadings of radiant energy or neutrons on the first wall. It is shown that if high beta (greater than 0.2) fusion reactors are feasible, the high reactivity of the DT reaction cannot be fully exploited because of wall loading limitations. In addition, some high beta reactors with advanced fuels are also found to be wall loading limited, and to have excess reactivity, which can be traded off for lower magnetic fields, longer particle containment times, etc. Under certain circumstances, the reduced materials problems associated with some advanced fuels may outweigh the reactivity advantage of the DT reaction, and make one of them the reaction of choice for high beta fusion reactors.