SOME COMMENTS ON THE POWER-BALANCE PARAMETERS Q AND epsilon AS MEASURES OF PERFORMANCE FOR FUSION POWER REACTORS.

Abstract

Power-producing fusion-reactor systems may require a complex of plasma-producing subsystems (containment, heating, and injection) and of energy-conversion subsystems (thermal and direct). To establish a basis for a comparison of these reactor power systems, generalized definitions based on power balance are proposed for the two important power-balance parameters: (1) Q (ratio of output to input power), and (2) e (fractional circulating power). The values of Q and e determined from the proposed generalized definitions are compared with values in the literature based on different definitions.

Survey of thermonuclear-reactor parameters.

“…1 Referring to the power-flow diagram, (Fig. 1), the definition adopted for this survey is that the Q factor of a fusion power reactor, independent of subsystems, be defined as the ratio of the total reactor power output P 0 (across interface B) to the total power input P^ (across interface A),…”

“…The mirrorreactor design studies described by Werner et al 1 use the concept of direct conversion of chargedparticle energy into elec trical power. The systems considered include YinYang and axially sym metric coil configurations, with DT and D 3 H e fuel cycles.…”