Prospects for improved fusion reactors
Ideally, a new energy source must be capable of displacing old energy sources while providing both economic opportunities and enhanced environmental benefits. The attraction of an essentially unlimited fuel supply has generated a strong impetus to develop advanced fission breeders and, even more strongly, the exploitation of nuclear fusion. Both fission and fusion systems trade a reduced fuel charge for a more capital-intensive plant needed to utilize a cheaper and more abundant fuel. Results from early conceptual designs of fusion power plants, however, indicated a capital intensiveness that could override cost savings promised by an inexpensive fuel cycle. Early warnings of these problems appeared, and generalized routes to more economically attractive systems have been suggested; specific examples have also recently been given. Although a direct reduction in the cost (and mass) of the fusion power core (FPC, i.e., plasma chamber, first wall, blanket, shield, coils, and primary structure) most directly reduces the overall cost of fusion power, with the mass power density (MPD, ratio of net electric power to FPC mass, kWe/tonne) being suggested as a figure-of-merit in this respect, other technical, safety/environmental, and institutional issues also enter into the definition of and direction for improved fusion concepts. These latter issues and related tradeoffs are discussed.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Phillips Petroleum Co., Bartlesville, OK (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-36
- OSTI ID:
- 6011749
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-86-641; CONF-860603-5; ON: DE86007377
- Resource Relation:
- Journal Volume: 5; Journal Issue: 3; Conference: 4. European nuclear conference and 9. FORATOM congress (ENC '86) and international nuclear trade fair, Geneva, Switzerland, 1 Jun 1986; Other Information: Portions of this document are illegible in microfiche products
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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