Economic assessment of fusion and fusion-driven subcritical systems based on internalization of external costs and benefits

A complete economic assessment of fusion and fusion-driven subcritical system (FDS) systems should include the internalities and externalities, which reflect the costs/benefits of economy, environment and safety. A method of internalization of external costs and benefits, which are quantified by a tax levied on the environmental pollution of energy production, is presented. Based on the methodology, cost–benefit models of FDS are constructed. The economic performances of FDS-I (a typical design of FDS) has been calculated and compared with those of pure fusion energy systems. The impacts of the characteristic parameters of FDS-I on economy have been studied. The results have been specified to give recommendations for the improvement of the design.