The TITAN reversed-field-pinch fusion reactor study

Abstract

The TITAN Reversed-Field-Pinck (RFP) fusion-reactor study is a multi-institutional research effort to determine the technical feasibility and key developmental issues for an RFP fusion reactor operating at high power density, and to determine the poten tial economic (cost of electricity), operational (maintenance and availability), safety and environmental features of high mass-pov IT-density fusion systems. Mass power density (MPD) is defined as the ratio of net electric output to the mass of the fusion power core (FPC). The fusion power core includes the plasma chamber, first wall, blanket, shield, magnets, and related structure. Two different detailed designs, TITAN-I and TITAN-II, have been produced to demon strate the possibility of multiple engineering-design approaches to high-MPD reactors. TITAN-I is a self-cooled lithium design with a vanadium-alloy structure^ TITAN-II is a self-cooled aqueous loop-in-pool design with 9C ferritic steel as the structural material. Both designs would use RFP plasmas operating with essentially the same parameters. Both conceptual reactors are based on the DT fuel cycle, have a net electric output of about 1000MWe, are compact, and have a high MPD of 800 kWe per tonne of FPC. The inherent physical characteristics of the RFP confinement concept make possible compact fusion reactors with such a high mass power density. The TITAN designs would meet the U. S. criteria for the near-surface disposal of radioactive waste (Class C, 1QCFR61) and would achieve a high Level of Safety Assurance with respect to FPC damage by decay afterheat and radioactivity release caused by accidents. Very importantly, a "single-piece" FPC maintenance procedure has been worked out and appears feasible for both designs. Parametric system studies have been used to find cost-optimized designs, to determine the parametric design window associated with each approach, and to assess the sensitivity of the designs to a wide range of physics and engineering requirements and assumptions. The design window for such compact RFP reactors would include machines with neutron wall loadings in the range of 10-20 MW/m 2 with a shallow minimum-COE at about ISMW/m*. Even though operation at the lower end of the this range of wall loading (10-12 MW/n?) is possible, and may be preferable, the TITAN study adopted the design point at the upper end (18MW/rr&) in order to quantify and assess the technical feasibility and physics limits for such high-MPD reactors. From this work, key physics and engineering issues central to achieving reactors with the features of TITAN-I and TITAN-H have emerged.