31 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
Engineering Options for the U.S. Fusion Demo
Through its successful operation, the US Fusion Demo must be sufficiently convincing that a utility or independent power producer will choose to purchase one as its next electric generating plant. A fusion power plant which is limited to the use of currently-proven technologies is unlikely to be sufficient attractive to a utility unless fuel shortages and regulatory restrictions are far more crippling to competing energy sources than currently anticipated. In that case, the task of choosing an appropriate set of engineering technologies today involves trade-offs between attractiveness and technical risk. The design space for an attractive tokamak fusion power core is not unlimited; previous studies have shown that advanced low-activation ferritic steel, vanadium alloy, or SiC/SiC composites are the only candidates they have for the primary in-vessel structural material. An assessment of engineering design options has been performed using these three materials and the associated in-vessel component designs which are compatible with them
Recommended from our members
Availability program: Phase I report
An Availability Working Group was formed within the Office of Fusion Energy in March 1984 to consider the establishment of an availability program for magnetic fusion. The scope of this program is defined to include the development of (1) a comprehensive data base, (2) empirical correlations, and (3) analytical methods for application to fusion facilities and devices. The long-term goal of the availability program is to develop a validated, integrated methodology that will provide (1) projections of plant availability and (2) input to design decisions on maintainability and system reliability requirements. The Phase I study group was commissioned to assess the status of work in progress that is relevant to the availability program. The scope of Phase I included surveys of existing data and data collection programs at operating fusion research facilities, the assessment of existing computer models to calculate system availability, and the review of methods to predict and correlate data on component failure and maintenance. The results of these investigations are reported to the Availability Working Group in this document
Engineering Options for the U.S. Fusion Demo *
ABSTRACT Through its successful operation, the U.S. Fusion Demo must be sufficiently convincing that a utility or independent power producer will choose to purchase one as its next electric generating plant. A fusion power plant which is limited to the use of currently-proven technologies is unlikely to be sufficiently attractive to a utility unless fuel shortages and regulatory restrictions are far more crippling to competing energy sources than currently anticipated. In that case, the task of choosing an appropriate set of engineering technologies today involves trade-offs between attractiveness and technical risk. The design space for an attractive tokamak fusion power core is not unlimited; previous studies have shown that advanced lowactivation ferritic steel, vanadium alloy, or SiC/SiC composites are the only candidates we have for the primary in-vessel structural material. An assessment of engineering design options has been performed using these three materials and the associated in-vessel component designs which are compatible with them
Recommended from our members
Results of Systems Studies for the STARFIRE Commercial Tokamak
Extensive system and tradeoff studies were performed to support the selection process for the major parameters and design features of the STARFIRE commercial reactor. With a thermal power of 3800 MW, a neutron wall load of 3.5 MW/m/sup 2/ results in a relatively small-size reactor without imposing excessive requirements on the first-wall cooling capability, maximum toroidal-magnetic field, and frequency of structural material requirements. This moderately high-wall load requires that the first-wall coolant be liquid (water or lithium) and the lifetime of the structural material is > 15 MW-y/m/sup 2/. With moderate plasma elongation and beta the required maximum toroidal-field is approx. 11 T. STARFIRE is operated steady-state with no OH coil. The absence of an OH coil makes it possible to design the reactor with a low-aspect ratio (approx. 2.5) and small major radius. However, higher aspect ratios (approx. 3.5-4) are favored when the plasma current is driven with rf because the power required for the current drive, P/sub rf/, is much larger at lower aspect ratio. Since P/sub rf/ increases at lower plasma temperature, the optimum design for STARFIRE requires operation with plasma temperatures higher than those normally selected for designs with OH-driven current
Recommended from our members
Tritium Processing System for the ITER Li/V Blanket Test Module
The purpose of the ITER Blanket Testing Module is to test the operating and performance of candidate blanket concepts under a real fusion environment. To assure fuel self-sufficiency the tritium breeding, recovery and processing have to be demonstrated. The tritium produced in the blanket has to be processed to a purity which can be used for refueling. All these functions need to be accomplished so that the tritium system can be scaled to a commercial fusion power plant from a safety and reliability point of view. This paper summarizes the tritium processing steps, the size of the equipment, power requirements, space requirements, etc. for a self-cooled lithium blanket. This information is needed for the design and layout of the test blanket ancillary system and to assure that the ITER guidelines for remote handling of ancillary equipment can be met