Cost-effective shield designs for environmentally attractive fusion power plants

Journal Article · Tue Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1996 · Fusion Technology

OSTI ID:447340

El-Guebaly, L A ^[1]; Bathke, C G ^[2]

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1. Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
2. Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)

Vanadium alloys and SiC/SiC composites offer significant advantages in their low activation characteristics and high thermal performance capability. However, a design based entirely on these advanced structures would be expensive. Therefore, it is essential to limit the use of such advanced materials to highly irradiated components such as plasma facing components and blanket. The cost savings for replacing the V and SiC structures of the massive shield with steel are significant. This will degrade the thermal conversion efficiency of the system somewhat since steel cannot operate at temperatures as high as V or SiC. The dividing boundary between the high temperature and low temperature zones will therefore depend on how much power could be dumped as low grade heat without significantly reducing the useful thermal power. This novel approach for designing the shield of V- and SiC-based fusion power plants, along with other innovative ideas that improved the shield performance, reduced the overall cost of electricity by 10%, which is significant. 8 refs., 2 figs., 4 tabs.

• OSTI ID: 447340
• Report Number(s): CONF-9606116--
• Journal Information: Fusion Technology, Journal Name: Fusion Technology Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 30; ISSN 0748-1896; ISSN FUSTE8
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
BREEDING BLANKETS
COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS
DESIGN
DEUTERIUM
NEUTRON ACTIVATION ANALYSIS
NUMERICAL DATA
SHIELDS
SILICON CARBIDES
THERMAL TESTING
THERMONUCLEAR FUELS
THERMONUCLEAR POWER PLANTS
THERMONUCLEAR REACTOR MATERIALS
TRITIUM
VANADIUM ALLOYS