A Fusion Nuclear Science Facility for a fast-track path to DEMO

Journal Article · Thu Apr 24 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · Fusion Engineering and Design

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2014.03.055· OSTI ID:1358207

Garofalo, Andrea M. ^[1]; Abdou, M. ^[2]; Canik, John M. ^[3]; Chan, Vincent S. ^[1]; Hyatt, Alan W. ^[1]; Hill, David N. ^[4]; Morley, N. B. ^[2]; Navratil, Gerald A. ^[5]; Sawan, M. E. ^[6]; Taylor, Tony S. ^[1]; Wong, Clement P.C. ^[1]; Wu, Wen ^[1]; Ying, Alice ^[2]

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1. General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States)
2. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
3. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
4. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
5. Columbia Univ., New York, NY (United States)
6. University of Wisconsin Madison

An accelerated fusion energy development program, a fast-track approach, requires proceeding with a nuclear and materials testing program in parallel with research on burning plasmas, ITER. A Fusion Nuclear Science Facility (FNSF) would address many of the key issues that need to be addressed prior to DEMO, including breeding tritium and completing the fuel cycle, qualifying nuclear materials for high fluence, developing suitable materials for the plasma-boundary interface, and demonstrating power extraction. The Advanced Tokamak (AT) is a strong candidate for an FNSF as a consequence of its mature physics base, capability to address the key issues, and the direct relevance to an attractive target power plant. The standard aspect ratio provides space for a solenoid, assuring robust plasma current initiation,and for an inboard blanket, assuring robust tritium breeding ratio (TBR) >1 for FNSF tritium self-sufficiency and building of inventory needed to start up DEMO. An example design point gives a moderate sized Cu-coil device with R/a = 2.7 m/0.77 κ = 2.3, B_T= 5.4 T, I_P = 6.6 MA, β_N = 2.75, P_fus = 127 MW. The modest bootstrap fraction of f_BS = 0.55 provides an opportunity to develop steady state with sufficient current drive for adequate control. Lastly, proceeding with a FNSF in parallel with ITER provides a strong basis to begin construction of DEMO upon the achievement of Q ~ 10 in ITER.

• Research Organization: General Atomics, San Diego, CA (United States); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE); USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• Grant/Contract Number: FC02-04ER54698; AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1358207
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1265972
• Journal Information: Fusion Engineering and Design, Vol. 89, Issue 7-8; ISSN 0920-3796
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
Fusion Nuclear Science Facility
fusion materials
steady-state operation
disruptions
power exhaust
breeding blanket