Steady state versus pulsed tokamak reactors

Segal, D. J.; Cerfon, A. J.; Freidberg, J. P.

doi:10.1088/1741-4326/abe0d2

Title: Steady state versus pulsed tokamak reactors

Journal Article · Tue Mar 16 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Nuclear Fusion

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-4326/abe0d2· OSTI ID:1849940

Segal, D. J.; Cerfon, A. J.;

Abstract We have carried out a detailed analysis that compares steady state versus pulsed tokamak reactors. The motivations are as follows. Steady state current drive has turned out to be more difficult than expected—it takes too many watts to drive an ampere, which has a negative effect on power balance and economics. This is partially compensated by the recent development of high temperature REBCO superconductors, which offers the promise of more compact, lower cost tokamak reactors, both steady state and pulsed. Of renewed interest is the reduction in size of pulsed reactors because of the possibility of higher field Ohmic transformers for a given required pulse length. Our main conclusion is that pulsed reactors may indeed be competitive with steady state reactors and this issue should be re-examined with more detailed engineering level studies.

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Research Organization:: New York Univ. (NYU), NY (United States); Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC)

DOE Contract Number:: FG02-86ER53223; FG02-91ER54109; SC0012398

OSTI ID:: 1849940

Journal Information:: Nuclear Fusion, Vol. 61, Issue 4; ISSN 0029-5515

Publisher:: IOP Science

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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