Cost Assessment of a Generic Magnetic Fusion Reactor

A generic reactor model is used to examine the economic viability of electricity generation by magnetic fusion. The simple model uses components that are representative of those used in previous reactor studies of deuterium-tritium burning tokamaks, stellarators, Bumpy Tori, reversed-field pinches, and tandem mirrors. Conservative costing assumptions are made. The generic reactor is not a tokamak but rather it is intended to emphasize what is common to all magnetic fusion reactors. The reactor uses a superconducting toroidal coil set to produce the dominant magnetic field. To this extent, it is not as good an approximation to systems, such as the reversed-field pinch, in which the main field is produced by a plasma current. The main output of the study is the cost of electricity as a function of the weight and size of the fusion core - blanket, shield, structure, and coils. The model shows that a 1200-MW (electric) power plant with a fusion core weight of approx. = 10,000 tonnes should be competitive in the future with fission and fossil plants. Sensitivity studies that vary the assumptions show that this result is not sensitively dependent on any given assumption. Of particular importance is the result that this scale ofmore » fusion reactor may be realized with only moderate advances in physics and technology capabilities.« less

[1]  E. S. Bettis,et al.  ORNL fusion power demonstration study: interim report , 1977 .

[2]  W. E. Bickford,et al.  Fusion reactor design studies: standard unit costs and cost scaling rules , 1979 .

[3]  S. S. Kalsi,et al.  Superconducting toroidal field coil current densities for the TFCX , 1985 .

[4]  F. W. Clinard,et al.  Materials Technology for Fusion: Current Status and Future Requirements , 1981 .

[5]  W. R. Spears,et al.  Scaling of tokamak reactor costs , 1980 .

[6]  Betty K. Jensen,et al.  Utility Evaluation of Fusion-Fission Hybrids , 1984 .

[7]  H. R. Hicks,et al.  Equilibrium and stability properties of high-beta torsatrons , 1983 .

[8]  Zoran Musicki,et al.  The Availability Analysis of Fusion Power Plants as Applied to MARS , 1983 .

[9]  Robert Carruthers.  The Fusion Dilemma , 1981 .

[10]  M. Abdou.  Tritium Breeding in Fusion Reactors , 1983 .

[11]  J. G. Delene,et al.  Regional projections of nuclear and fossil electric power generation costs , 1983 .

[12]  J. Slough,et al.  Flux and particle life-time measurements in field-reversed configurations , 1984 .

[13]  D. Post,et al.  Recent progress in the tokamak edge modeling , 1984 .

[14]  Z. El-Derini,et al.  A comparative study of the performance and economics of advanced and conventional structural materials in fusion systems , 1979 .

[15]  C. E. Wagner.  Possibility of achieving ignition in a high-field Ohmically heated tokamak , 1981 .

[16]  T. L. Willke,et al.  Fusion reactor design studies: standard accounts for cost estimates , 1978 .

[17]  S. Jardin,et al.  Ballooning Mode Stability of Bean-Shaped Cross Sections for High-β Tokamak Plasmas , 1983 .

[18]  R. Gruber,et al.  MHD-limits to plasma confinement , 1984 .

[19]  J. G. Delene,et al.  Power generation costs for alternate reactor fuel cycles , 1980 .

[20]  D. Post,et al.  Models for poloidal divertors , 1982 .

[21]  F. Hinton,et al.  Theory of plasma transport in toroidal confinement systems , 1976 .