Fifty Years of Magnetic Fusion Research (1958–2008): Brief Historical Overview and Discussion of Future Trends
TL;DR: In the early 1970s, the secrecy surrounding magnetically controlled thermonuclear fusion had been lifted allowing researchers to freely share technical results and discuss the challenges of harnessing fusion power.
Abstract: Fifty years ago, the secrecy surrounding magnetically controlled thermonuclear fusion had been lifted allowing researchers to freely share technical results and discuss the challenges of harnessing fusion power. There were only four magnetic confinement fusion concepts pursued internationally: tokamak, stellarator, pinch, and mirror. Since the early 1970s, numerous fusion designs have been developed for the four original and three new approaches: spherical torus, field-reversed configuration, and spheromak. At present, the tokamak is regarded worldwide as the most viable candidate to demonstrate fusion energy generation. Numerous power plant studies (>50), extensive R&D programs, more than 100 operating experiments, and an impressive international collaboration led to the current wealth of fusion information and understanding. As a result, fusion promises to be a major part of the energy mix in the 21st century. The fusion roadmaps developed to date take different approaches, depending on the anticipated power plant concept and the degree of extrapolation beyond ITER. Several Demos with differing approaches will be built in the US, EU, Japan, China, Russia, Korea, India, and other countries to cover the wide range of near-term and advanced fusion systems.
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01 Jan 2019
TL;DR: The majority of the chapter is devoted to a presentation of the principal structural material choices for major subsystems of a fusion power reactor, such as the first wall/blanket, divertor, and vacuum vessel (VV).
Abstract: This chapter presents an overview of the conditions that structural materials being developed for fusion power reactor applications would encounter. We begin by briefly describing the relevant plasma physics that dictate the fusion environment, which drive microstructure evolutions in structural alloys. The fundamentals of radiation damage in the fusion environment are discussed, but the reader is referred to a much more detailed treatment of this topic given in Chapter 5 . Our intent is to highlight the most important degradation mechanisms operating in the fusion environment. We compare and contrast the fusion environment with that found in existing and proposed advanced fission energy systems, highlighting in particular the role that gaseous and solid transmutation products have on property evolution. The majority of the chapter is devoted to a presentation of the principal structural material choices for major subsystems of a fusion power reactor, such as the first wall/blanket, divertor, and vacuum vessel (VV). Our aim is to highlight the essential features of the material choices for each subsystem, and not to delve into the details, since other chapters address each class of structural alloys in greater depth. The emphasis is on the implication of the environment to the basic physical and mechanical properties requirements of these materials and challenges they face specific to the fusion environment.
14 citations
01 Jan 1981
TL;DR: In this paper, a preliminary design of a 5500 MW/sub th/modular stellarator power reactor, UW-TOR-M, is presented the parametric considerations which led to the UWTOR reference design point are briefly describe.
Abstract: A preliminary design of a 5500 MW/sub th/ modular stellarator power reactor, UW-TOR-M, is presented the parametric considerations which led to the UWTOR-M reference design point are briefly describe. A unique blanket design is proposed which minimized tritium inventory in the reactor. Finally, sine maintainability is a prime consideration, a scheme for is described servcing the first wall/blanket and other reactor components.
13 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a modification of the helical coil trajectory gives an improved condition both for the plasma confinement and the MHD stability, and a plausible solution is proposed for the maintenance method of helical divertor and the helically-segmented breeder blanket.
Abstract: The LHD-type helical fusion reactor FFHR has been studied to realize steady-state fusion power generation without a need for current drive and free from disruption. The conceptual design studies of FFHR are steadfastly progressing based on the presently ongoing experiments in the Large Helical Device (LHD). In order to enhance the attractive features of the base option of FFHR-d1A, which is similar to LHD, configuration optimization is being considered for FFHR-d1C. Slight modification of the helical coil trajectory gives an improved condition both for the plasma confinement and the MHD stability. In order to overcome the difficulty for construction and maintenance associated with the three-dimensional structure, innovative ideas are being explored for the superconducting magnet, divertor, and blanket. For the superconducting helical coils, the joint-winding method confirms a fast manufacturing process. The helical divertor is reexamined and practical feasibility is discussed. The maintenance method of the helical divertor and the helically-segmented breeder blanket is a serious issue and a plausible solution is proposed.
11 citations
01 Jan 1994
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used an integrated costminimization code that incorporates cost and reactor component models self-consistently with a one-dimensional energy transport calculation, showing that a torsatron reactor could also be economically competitive with a tokamak reactor.
Abstract: Stellarators have significant operational advantages over tokamaks as ignited steady-state reactors. This scoping study, which uses an integrated cost-minimization code that incorporates costing and reactor component models self-consistently with a one-dimensional energy transport calculation, shows that a torsatron reactor could also be economically competitive with a tokamak reactor. The projected cost of electricity (COE) estimated using the Advanced Reactor Innovation and Evaluation Studies (ARIES) costing algorithms is 65.6 mill per kWe h in constant 1992 dollars for a reference 1 GWe compact torsatron reactor. The COE is relatively insensitive (less than 10% variation) over a wide range of assumptions, including variations in the maximum field allowed on the coils, the coil elongation, the shape of the density profile, the beta limit, the confinement multiplier, and the presence of a large loss region for alpha particles. The largest variations in the COE occur for variations in the electrical power output demanded and the plasma-coil separation ratio.
7 citations
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TL;DR: The spherical torus is a very small aspect ratio (A 2 ) characterized by high toroidal beta (βt > 0.2), low poloidal β (βp 1.5), and strong magnetic helical pitch (Θ comparable to F).
Abstract: The spherical torus is a very small aspect ratio (A 2 are characterized by high toroidal beta (βt > 0.2), low poloidal beta (βp 1.5), and strong magnetic helical pitch (Θ comparable to F). A large near-omnigeneous region is seen in the large major radius, bad curvature region of the plasma in comparison with the conventional tokamaks. These features combine to engender the spherical torus plasma in a unique physics regime which permits compact fusion at low field and modest cost. Because of its strong paramagnetism and helical pitch, the spherical torus plasma shares some of the desirable features of spheromak and reversed-field pinch (RFP) plasmas, but with tokamak-like confinement and safety factor q. The general class of spherical tori, which includes the spherical tokamak (q>1), the spherical pinch (1>q>0), and the spherical RFP (q<0), have magnetic field configurations unique in comparison with conventional tokamaks and RFPs.
361 citations
"Fifty Years of Magnetic Fusion Rese..." refers background in this paper
...[49] identified unique physics features of ST as a low aspect ratio machine with good plasma confinement, high toroidal beta (that enhances the fusion power), high bootstrap current (that reduces the external current drive), and resiliency to major...
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TL;DR: A series of fusion power plants (named FDS series) have been designed and assessed for the examination of the feasibility and the safety, environmental and economical potential of fusion with emphasizing the blanket design optimization on neutronics, thermal-hydraulics, electro-magnetics, material, structural performance analyses in China as discussed by the authors.
260 citations
TL;DR: The ARIES-AT as discussed by the authors is a simple low-pressure design consisting of SiC composite boxes with a SiC insert for flow distribution that does not carry any structural load.
208 citations
"Fifty Years of Magnetic Fusion Rese..." refers background or methods in this paper
...Najmabadi, F.; Abdou, A.; Bromberg, L.; Brown, T.; Chan, V.C.; Chu, M.C.; Dahlgren, F.; El-Guebaly, L.; Heitzenroeder, P.; Henderson, D.; et al. The ARIES-AT advanced tokamak, advanced technology fusion power plant....
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...More recently, Miller [41] modified the TITAN characteristics by introducing the modern engineering and economic approaches of ARIES-AT [22]....
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...Improvements were apparent in all designs, progressing from ARIES-I to ARIES-AT....
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...The tokamak studies were resumed in the early 1990s by the ARIES team, delivering a series of advanced tokamak power plants: ARIES-I [19], ARIES-II and ARIES-IV [20], ARIES-RS [21], and ARIES-AT [22]....
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TL;DR: An overview of the FDS-II conceptual design will be presented, a series of performance analyses are summarized and further R&D needs are specified.
188 citations
"Fifty Years of Magnetic Fusion Rese..." refers methods in this paper
...Selected parameters of FDS-II [29] are displayed in Figure 3....
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...Over the past 10 years, China developed a series of fusion design studies (FDS), covering a broad range of tokamak concepts, including a hybrid tokamak to transmute fission products and breed fissile fuels (FDS-I), electricity generator (FDS-II), hydrogen producer (FDS-III), and spherical tokamak (FDS-ST) to examine innovative approaches....
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...Wu, Y. Conceptual design of the china fusion power plant FDS-II....
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TL;DR: The ARIES-RS tokamak is a conceptual, D-T-burning 1000 MWe power plant as mentioned in this paper, which employs a reversed-shear plasma and employs a moderate aspect ratio (A40).
140 citations
"Fifty Years of Magnetic Fusion Rese..." refers background in this paper
...Najmabadi, F.; Bathke, C.G.; Billone, M.C.; Blanchard, J.P.; Bromberg, L.; Chin, E.; Cole, F.R.; Crowell, J.A.; Ehst, D.A.; El-Guebaly, L.A.; et al. Overview of ARIES-RS reversed shear power plant study....
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...The tokamak studies were resumed in the early 1990s by the ARIES team, delivering a series of advanced tokamak power plants: ARIES-I [19], ARIES-II and ARIES-IV [20], ARIES-RS [21], and ARIES-AT [22]....
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