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Information Center Is to Provide Broadest Dissemination Possi A major purpose of the Techni- cal Information Center is to provide the broadest dissemination possi- Me of information contained in DOE’s Research and Development Reports to business, industry, the academic community, and federal, state and local governments. Although a small portion of this report is not reproducible, it is being made available to expedite the availability of information on the research discussed herein. LA-UR -83-930 NOTICE PORTIONS fl~ T!+:3 l?EPi)RT .RI!E !!.LEG18LE. TITLE COMPACT FUS ION REACTORS ———_ . _ It has kk’i: r:~roduccd ?rom the best availoblc copy to permit !he hroadeti P0SSihJ8 avallabJJJtg AuTPIoa[s) R. A. tiraho~skl Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, !1!1S7545 R, L. liil~(211SOll ‘1’cchnologv International Inc. , Ames, Iowa 500i9 MASTER SUB~IfTED TO 5th ANS Tupical Mcctini! on the Technnlokv of I%sif}n Hncrjv Knoxville, T:/ (April ‘26-2N, 1983) “l-hisrcporlwasprcpmcdusm ucimuntdwork spuniurcdhyxnMKcncyur[hc[JnimdSIaIa (iuvcrmncn{.Neithcrihc(JnilcdSlohx+(iuvcrnmcntII,)rtinyngcncylhcrw(,nurnnyorlhcir cmplnyw.nmkcsunywnrran[y,caprcmurim])licd,m nmumcsunyIcguliinhllilyurrccpunai. hilityIurtheuccurncy,cumplclcncm.nrusrfulnckso(tinyinkwmuliun,qqwrnius,prducl,nr prucxMdiccluscd,orrcp-nlsthutilsutcwIIuldnulinfrin~cprivatelyuwncdrights.Ncfcr. CIILZhereinlounyqwci[iccommcrciulprmluct,prwxc,urservicehytraocname,Irudcmurk, mrinuructurcr,orotherwiseIJ(RMnwincucxmrilyamti[i[utcorimplyihcndurwmenl,rccwm. mcrrdnllun,or(nvuringhy the[Jni~cdStuIcK(invcrnmcnlw UIIVngcrwyIhqrcur.llc vlcwa nmlnpiniomd uuilw+cqwcmcdhcrclntlunotncwcurilyMIMIC.w rcllcwIhucaofIho UniuxlSlwcb(iuvcrnmcnlurunyugcrwy[hcrcul. LosAlamos NationalLaborator LOWbWililOSbsAiamos,NewMexico87541 ,M, COMPACT FUSION REACTORS* R. A. KRAKOWSKI, Los Alamoa National Laboratory R. L. HAGENSON, Technology International, Inc. ?. O. BoX 1663 2515 Elwood Prive LOS Alamos, New Mexico 87545 Ames, Iowa 50010 (505) 667-5863 (515) 296-2233 ABs’ImcT Compact, high-power-density approaches to ● Implication: these KFE ayatema will be fusion power are proposed to improve ecunomic appreciably more expensive than alternative, viaoility though the use of less-ad~anced tech- long-term energy aourcea in spite of a nology ir systems of considerably reduced negligible fuel charge. scale. The ratiGnale for and the means by which these systems can be achieved are dla- ● Solution: FPCa of considerably higher power cus.aed, as are ualque technological problems. denuity that simultaneously operate with acceptably low recirculating power fractions 1. INTRODUCTION (~ 0.1-0.2) and reasonable extrapolation of present technology will be required. The engineering development needs for the mainline tokmak have been quantified by Concern over this dominance in FPClmags detailed conceptual deeign 8tudiea of both and coet for many MI% approached - , first-generation engineering experiments:” and therefore, has led to consideration of more commercial power reactors,3 while eimilar compact options.lo-13 Thie generic category Otudiea of the Tandem Mirror Reactor (TKR)4-6 includes the as well as nearer-term engineering devicea7‘8 Reactor (CRFPR),12c~m!iact1 the ‘everaed-Fieldreuctor embodiment‘inchof are being conducted. The statue of reactor the Ohmically-Heated Toroidal Experiment deeignN for tokamaku, tandem mirrors, and tokamaka (l.O., alternative fusion conce ts (APCa) has been :%%)l~~f~:fi::; certain aubeletuentaof aummarizzd quantitatively,!,lOand a qualita- the Compact Toroida (CT, 1.s., a heromka and t~i,l~aaaeeement of the engineering nnd tech- field-reversed configurationa).28-27 Tl)cword nology tl~eds of toe major AFCN hau been “compact” deecribea approached chat would presented recently.11 The aaueatimunt of operate with high engineering or uyatem power econ.~micviqbil ty for magnetic fuaion energy density (i,e,, total thermal power per unit of (MFE) provided by these atudieu can become FPC volume) and does not necea8arily imply somewhut conv,,lutedand obHcurod by tho lnter- small plant capacity, Also, “compact” doc~ not depent.lenccot’complex phy.stica,engineering, and neceftoarily rcfsr to or limit a #pccific coMtlng/econor~lc~. In order to circumvent in confinement achemn; juef.aa the Rever~ed-FieltJ part the am’aiguity thlit ueually actompanien Pinch (RFP) has a viable “conventional” reactcr attamptH to combine and interpret reault# from embodiment2e, compact raact.oroption~ for the 11 lnrgc numhcr of relatively independent tokamakis-l~, the stellar/ltor/toruatron/ atudi(!n,this paper proceedu 011 the baai~ of heli>tron (S/T/H)29, and certain CT config- Onc wimple obeervutlon and one atralghtforwurd uratlonu c14n be enviu~god, Gen~ral remedy propouod to reduce tile itnplication of cheracteriutlc~ being aou~ht by the comptict that ob~orvation, Specificuily: reuctor option~ art?:power denaitieH within thQ F1’Capproaching those of ligl~t-water L’i.sMion retictoru (i.e., 10-15 MWt/m3 or 10-30 time* grautur than fttrother WE ayutemg); projoctod tot4tl coetu thu~ are rttlativalyinuonuitiva to l~trgt?chattgeH in uuit coots ($/kg) uaud to e8timuCe tl’(:and itaguciatad reactor plunt equlpmr?nt(WI;) c.08t#,theruby reducing tho im- pact of unccrtaintie~ in the aattociittatjphyuic.~ ttll(ft.uchIIuIcRyOn total CO#t; conuidcrably re- ducvtl FI)C alzc and matim with pctentiul for “block” (lie., Mingle or fcw-piec~!) intittill- ation and maintenance; and the potenti~l for reactor, while considerably reducing develop- rapid, minimum-coat development and deployment. ment requirements and coata. The compact option will require the III. RATIONALE extension of exlating technologies to accommo- date’ higher heat and particle fluxes, higher Although the compact approached reduce the power densities, and, In some instancea, higher stored plaama energy requirea for commercial magnetic fielda required to operate FPCS with fuaioc by an order of magnit~de, while higher ayetem power densities. Both the almultaneoualy giving enhanced uyatcm power advantages and limitations of the compact density and FPC maaa utilization, ulti~tely, option, aa well as related technological needs, the decision on an optimal ayatem powex density have recently been sur~rized.30 must be made on the baa;a of economics. The direct coata of a fiaaton ur fusion reactor ia After suaznarizingin Sec. II. th~ status divided into the Reactor-Plant-Equipment (RYE) of fusion reactor designs in relationship to and the Balance-of-plant (BOP) coata. The SOP present and projected near-term experiments, conaiata of all aubayatema o,~~aidethe ~econd- Sec. 111. gives a rationale for investigating ary containment. The RPE coat for fiaaion higher power density options. The pathway to reactora la approximately 25% of the plant the high-power-density approach ia described in total direct coat (TDC). Moat of the studies Skc. Iv. After summarizing a zzvher of recent autmaarizecion Table I, however, project RPE compact reactor design poinca in Sec. V., key coata that range from 50 to 75 parcent of the technology needa are summarized in Sec. VI. TDc. The BOP coata for a fiaaion and fusion Summary concluaiona are given in Sec. VII. plant of the same electrical power output are expected to be approximately the same, although 11. STATUS the reactor-building coata for the latter can be greater. Hence, TDC ear.imatea for fusion Although the achievement of phyafca energy reactora predict higher valuea th&n for fiaaion breakeven and eventual deuterlum-tritlum pcwcr planta becauae of high RPE coata related ignition repreaenta major near-term and primarily uo expensive (i.e., ~aaive, high- practically achievable goala, these conditions technology) FPCa. This simplified view must be will be demonstrated in devices containing tempered with certain caveata. Fus~ou reactora total plaama kinetic energies that differ capable of a18nificant direct conversion attain significantly from the requiramenta projected higher overall energy conversion afficienciea for commercial power reactora. This difference and, therafore> Project smaller BOP coata; the is beat illustrated on Fig. 1 by plotting the TDC , however, will be smaller only if the coat confinement paratnete~againat the total kinetic of the direct e~~ergycor.vertorala sufficiently energy stored in the plaama, Given steady low, Aleo, ayatemo with high recirculating progreaa towarda achieving tmproved confinement power fractidntivill require larger BOPa and at reactor-like plaanm denuitiea and temper- aaaociated coats, even thouch the F?C maaa ature, the gap exl~ting batwaen cxperimenta utilization may be low. and FED-like devices, @a well a~ between FED- like devlceu and commercial reactoru, trana- A correlation of the ratio RIE/TDC with latea into a need for uignificcnt technology the Unit Direct Coete (UDC) for a range cf development. conceptual fuuion power plants (Table 1) ia givan in Fi8. 2; the dominance of the RPE cocta Key plaama, FPC, and power-plant for both mainline and major alternative iua”lon parameters emerging from recent raactor design concepte la indicated. The UDC and the ratio studieu arc aunnarized on Table I. Given RPE/TDC uee nominal values of - 900 $/kUe and continued atoadj progre~~, improved plauma 0.25, rebpet!tively,in Fig. 2 to normalize the confin~taent leuding to plaema if ltion app~ara fuaiol~pro,jection8to LWRE, The TDC for fv,aion m u re~{sonahlyattainable goml, ExtenHion to reletive tu fiat4ion can then be determined tt]t!~ddltlonal 10(]-1000fold lncreuue in stored under the aoeumption that ttte BOP coste for plabtna energy require:! for the commercial likp fuoion
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