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Counterstreaming-ion-tokamak fissile breeder

Conference ·
OSTI ID:7333291

Tokamak plasmas fueled and heated by energetic neutral-atom beams are characterized by total ion energy greatly exceeding the electron energy. For smaller devices the largest fusion reactivity of energetic-ion plasmas is obtained when oppositely injected D/sup 0/ and T/sup 0/ beams sustain counterstreaming velocity distributions of deuterons and tritons. This scoping study investigates the net fissile and power productions of a tokamak fusion-fission reactor with a counterstreaming-ion fusion driver and a fertile blanket optimized for fissile breeding. The fusion driver has parameters R/sub o/ = 4.7 m, a = 1.0 m, B/sub t/ = 5.6 T, W/sub b/ = 100 keV (D/sup 0/), n tau/sub E/ = 1.4 x 10/sup 13/ cm/sup -3/s, Q = 1.5, 14-MeV neutron production = 175 MW. The blanket contains a fast-fission zone of natural U plus Mo (7 percent), followed by a Li-bearing zone for T breeding. The reactor produces a net power of 480 MWe and supplies sufficient Pu to support a system of LWR's producing 3800 MWe, with an estimated electrical energy cost for the entire system of 27 mills/kWh.

Research Organization:
Princeton Univ., N.J. (USA). Plasma Physics Lab.
OSTI ID:
7333291
Report Number(s):
MATT-1255; CONF-760733-3
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English