Title :
Environmental advantage of fusion power plants
Author_Institution :
TSI Res. Inc., USA
Abstract :
Assessment of neutron activation in fusion power plants made of candidate materials was performed with the power plant modeled after ARIES-RS. Candidate blanket concepts studied were vanadium alloy structure - lithium coolant, reduced activation ferritic martensitic structure - molten salt coolant, and SiC structure - lead lithium eutectic coolant. Power plant components other than the blankets are those proposed in ARIES-RS plant. Ultimate impurities projected from recent literature were included in the analysis. It was found that most of the power plant components could only be recycled with remote-handling technique. To facilitate hands-on recycling to maximize the environmental advantage of fusion power plants, however, requires further reduction of impurities in component materials, and increase in inboard space to allow for more shielding materials in order to reduce the neutron activation in the toroidal field magnets. Increase of inboard space calls for a larger or higher aspect-ratio tokamak power plant, which in turn defines a modest neutron wall loading for a constant fusion power output.
Keywords :
Tokamak devices; fusion reactor blankets; fusion reactors; lead alloys; lithium alloys; martensitic structure; neutron activation analysis; plasma inertial confinement; plasma toroidal confinement; plasma-wall interactions; silicon compounds; vanadium alloys; ARIES-RS; SiC structure; blanket concepts; environmental advantage; fusion power output; fusion power plants; hands-on recycling; impurities; inboard space; lead lithium eutectic coolant; lithium coolant; molten salt coolant; neutron activation; neutron wall; power plant components; reduced activation ferritic martensitic structure; remote-handling technique; shielding materials; tokamak power plant; toroidal field magnets; vanadium alloy structure; Coolants; Impurities; Lead; Lithium; Magnetic materials; Magnets; Neutrons; Power generation; Recycling; Silicon carbide;
Conference_Titel :
Fusion Engineering, 2003. 20th IEEE/NPSS Symposium on
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-7908-X
DOI :
10.1109/FUSION.2003.1426636