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Direct Conversion of Fusion Energy Master Project in Physicalelectrotechnology k-,, - - l 4- /- - - 9 - 4 4 Lor- - Zoo 3 - TRITA-ALF-2003-02 ISK Report CCH ISSN 1102-2051 ONSI ISRN KTH/ALF/--03/2--SE KTH a Now! "lo Ml Direct Conversion of Fusion Energy Master Project in PhysicalElectrotechnology Markus Johansson KFAWMMOUNIAM Research and Training programme on CONTROLLED THERMONUCLEAR FUSION AND PLASMA PHYSICS (Association EURATOMINFR) FUSION PLASM PHYSICS ALFVtN LABORATORY ROYAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY SE-100 44 STOCKHOLM SWEDEN Direct conversion of fusion energy Markus Johansson Department of Fusion Plasma Physics, Alfv6n Laboratory Royal Institute of Technology, SE - 00 44 STOCKHOLM, Sweden Master Project in Physical Electrotechnology Supervisor: Associate Professor Jan Scheffel March 3 2003 Printed v The Alfv6n aboratory Division of Fusion Plasma Phvslcs Royal nstitute of Technology SE-100 44 Stockholm Abstract Deuterium and tritium are expected to be used as fuel in the first fusion reactors. Energy is released as kinetic energy of ions and neutrons, when deuterium reacts with tritium. One way to convert the kinetic energy to electrical energy, is to let the ions and neutrons hit the reactor wall and convert the heat that is caused by the particle bombardment to electrical energy with ordinary thermal conversion. If the kinetic energy of the ions instead is converted directly to electrical energy, a higher efficiency of the energy conversion is possible. The ma- jority of the fusion energy is released as kinetic energy of neutrons, when deuterium reacts with tritium. Fusion reactions such as the D-D reactions, the D_3He reaction and the p-1113 reaction, where a larger part of the fu- sion energy becomes kinetic energy of charged particles, appears therefore more suitable for direct conversion. Since they have lower reactivity than the D-T reaction, they need a larger OBO2 t give sufficiently high fusion power density. Because of this, the fusion configurations spherical torus (ST) and field-reversed configuration (FRC), where high values are possible, appear interesting. Rosenbluth and Hinton come in 3 to the conclusion that efficient direct conversion isn't possible in closed field line systems and that open geometries, which facilitate direct conversion, provide inadequate confinement for D_3 He. It is confirmed in this study that it doesn't seem possible to achieve as high direct conversion efficiency in closed systems as in open systems. ST and FRC fusion power plants that utilize direct conversion seem however interesting. Calculations with the help of Maple indicate that the reactor parameters needed for a D-D ST and a D_3He ST hopefully are possible to achieve. The best energy conversion option for a D-D or D_3 He ST appears to be direct electrodynamic conversion (DEC) together with ordinary thermal conversion or liquid metal MHD conversion (LMMHD). For a D-T ST, LMMHD seems suitable. The FRC is suitable for application of direct energy converters, since an FC plasma is surrounded by open magnetic field lines. Venetian-blind (VB) collectors and traveling wave direct energy converters can give a high energy conversion efficiency. Reactor studies indicate that the COE may become lower for a D_3He FRC than for a D-T tokamak. CONTENTS 3 Contents 1 Introduction 5 2 Fusion fuels 5 2.1 Fusion reactions .. .. .. .. .. .. 5 2.2 Comparison between D-T and D_3 He . 7 2.2.1 Ignition . 8 2.2.2 Power density . 12 2.2.3 Can D_3 He compete with D-T? . 12 3 Energy conversion 14 3.1 D irect collection . 14 3.1.1 Venetian-blind collectors . 15 3.1.2 Ex collectors . 16 3.1.3 Cyclotron-resonance collectors . 16 3.2 Traveling wave direct energy converters . 17 3.3 MHD generators . 17 4 Application to fusion configurations 19 4.1 Closed system s . 19 4.2 Open system s . 20 4.2.1 Magnetic-mirrors . 20 4.2.2 Field-reversed configurations . 20 5 The spherical torus 22 5.1 D -T fuel . 24 5.2 D -D fuel . 30 5.3 D _3 H e fuel . 36 6 Discussion 39 7 Summary 40 A Maple program for D-T fuel 43 B Maple program for D-D fuel 52 C Maple program for D_3 He fuel 61 1. Introduction 5 1 Introduction The first fusion reactors are expected to use deuterium and tritium as fuel. When deuterium reacts with tritium, energy is released as kinetic energy of ions and neutrons. The walls of the reactors are then hit by ions and neutrons and are therefore heated. The heat energy can be taken up by the coolant that then produces steam that can drive generators. The efficiency of such a conversion of heat energy to electrical energy is limited to approximately 40%. If the kinetic energy of the ions is converted directly to electrical energy, a higher efficiency of the energy conversion is possible. Unfortunately the majority of the fusion energy is released as kinetic energy of neutrons, if the D-T reaction is used. Therefore other fusion reactions where a larger fraction of the fusion energy is released as kinetic energy of ions may be more suitable for direct conversion. Except the possibility of higher efficiency of the energy conversion, such reactions also have other advantages. The neutron wall load becomes lower and no tritium breeding blanket is needed. There are, however, also draw- backs. The reactivities are lower and the thermal wall load due to ion bom- bardment becomes higher. So the questions are: • Is it possible to build profitable fusion reactors that use direct conver- sion together with other fusion reactions than the D-T reaction? • Can direct conversion also become useful for D-T fusion reactors? 2 Fusion fuels There are some different fusion reactions, that may be used in a fusion reac- tor. In this section some reactions are discussed and then the D-T and the D_3He reaction are compared. 2.1 Fusion reactions Let us first discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the different fusion reactions. In Table some reactions are listed. The D-T reaction requires the lowest temperature and has the largest fusion reactivity, of all the fusion reactions. Unfortunately only 20% of the fusion energy is released as kinetic energy of charged particles. The rest is released as 14.1 MeV neutrons. Part of the energy of the charged particles is also lost as radiation, so only a small fraction of the fusion energy is available for direct energy conversion. There are three major reaction schemes that use deuterium as the pri- mary fuel 1]. 6 2. Pusion fuels Name Fusion reaction and energy release (MeV) Yield (MeV) D-T D + T 4He(3.52) + n(14.07) 17.59 D-D-n D + D 3 He(O.82) + n(2.45) 3.27 D-D-p D + D T(1-01) + p(3.02) 4.03 D_3He D + 3 He , 4 He(3.66) + p(14.6) 18.30 P_6Li P 6Li 4He(l.72) + 3 He(2.29) 4.02 P_1113 p + B 34He 8.66 3He_3 He 3He + 3 He - 2p 4 He 12.86 Table 1: Fusion reactions. 1. The uncatalyzed DD reaction. Only the D-D-n and the D-D-p reaction are used. Deuterons react with each other and the probabilities for the reactions D-D-n and D-D-p are approximately equal for all energies likely to be of interest in fusion applications. The 3He and T that are produced are removed before they can react with the deuterium and can be used to fuel other reactors. Of the total energy release 66.4 is available as kinetic energy of charged particles and 33.6% appears as 2.45 MeV neutrons. 2. The semi-catalyzed DD reaction. The three reactions D-D-n, D-D-p and D_3He are used. The D_3He reaction occurs between the 3He produced in the D-D-n reaction and the primary deuterium fuel. The 3He that escapes from confinement are reinjected into the plasma. The tritium produced is stored until it beta decays into 3He. The resulting 3He can be used as fuel in other fusion reactors. 90.4% of the fusion energy is released in the form of kinetic energy of charged particles and the rest as 245 MeV neutrons. 3. The catalyzed DD reaction. The four reactions D-D-n, D-D-p, D_3 He and D-T are used. The 3 He and produced by the primary DD reactions are reinjected into the plasma until they react with the deu- terium. Approximately 61.8% of the fusion energy becomes charged particle energy, the rest becomes neutron energy. The neutron energy appears in the form of 245 MeV and 14.1 MeV neutrons. They cause radiological, shielding and material problems almost as severe as they would be in a D-T reactor. An important environmental advantage of using the catalyzed DD reaction instead of the D-T reaction is however the lower concentration of tritium. The DD reaction schemes have some advantages. Deuterium occurs naturally in very large quantities. No tritium breeding blanket is needed. In all the three DD reaction schemes a large fraction of the fusion energy is released as charged particle energy. The DD reaction schemes are therefore suitable 2. Fusion fuels 7 for direct energy conversion. The D-3He reaction releases all of its energy as charged particle energy and is because of that very suitable for direct energy conversion. Because of the deuterium, some D-D and D-T reactions also occur in a D_3He plasma, so a little neutrons are produced in such a plasma as well. The D_3He reaction has the second largest fusion reactivity of all the fusion reactions in Table .
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