Publication

Technological and physics assessments on heating and current drive systems for DEMO

Minh Quang Tran, Laurie Porte, Hartmut Zohm, Emanuele Poli, Giovanni Tardini
2015
Conference Papers

Abstract

The physics requirements of the heating and current (H&CD) systems in a Demonstration Fusion Power Plant (DEMO) are often beyond the actual level of design maturity and technology readiness required. The recent EU fusion roadmap advocates a pragmatic approach and favours, for the initial design integration studies, systems to be as much as possible, extrapolated from the ITER experience. To reach the goal of demonstrating the production of electricity in DEMO with a closed fuel cycle by 2050, one must ensure reliability, availability, maintainability, inspectability (RAMI) as well as performance, efficiency and optimized design for the H&CD systems. In the recent Power Plant Physics & Technology (PPP&T) Work Programme, a number of H&CD studies were performed. The four H&CD systems Neutral Beam (NB) Injection, Electron Cyclotron (EC), Ion Cyclotron (IC) and Lower Hybrid (LH) were considered. First, a physics optimization study was made assuming all technologies are available and identifying which parameters are needed to optimize the performance for given plasma parameters. Separately, the (i) technological maturity was considered (e.g. 240 GHz gyrotrons for EC) and (ii) technologies were adapted (e.g. multi-stage depressed collector for EC) or (iii) novel solutions (e.g. photo-neutralization for NB or new antennae concepts for IC) were studied to overcome the limitations of the present H&CD systems with respect to DEMO requirements. Further constraints imposed by remote maintenance or breeding blanket interactions were considered. (C) 2015 Max-Planck-Institute for Plasma Physics. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Official source

https://infoscience.epfl.ch/entities/publication/79abf85f-3838-4936-9aee-574622c609fb

Minh Quang Tran, Laurie Porte, Hartmut Zohm, Emanuele Poli, Giovanni Tardini
2015
Conference Papers

Abstract

Official source

https://infoscience.epfl.ch/entities/publication/79abf85f-3838-4936-9aee-574622c609fb

Related concepts (32)

ITER

ITER (initially the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, iter meaning "the way" or "the path" in Latin) is an international nuclear fusion research and engineering megaproject aimed at creating energy through a fusion process similar to that of the Sun. Upon completion of construction of the main reactor and first plasma, planned for late 2025, it will be the world's largest magnetic confinement plasma physics experiment and the largest experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor.

Fusion power

Fusion power is a proposed form of power generation that would generate electricity by using heat from nuclear fusion reactions. In a fusion process, two lighter atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier nucleus, while releasing energy. Devices designed to harness this energy are known as fusion reactors. Research into fusion reactors began in the 1940s, but as of 2023, no device has reached net power. Fusion processes require fuel and a confined environment with sufficient temperature, pressure, and confinement time to create a plasma in which fusion can occur.

Cyclotron

A cyclotron is a type of particle accelerator invented by Ernest Lawrence in 1929–1930 at the University of California, Berkeley, and patented in 1932. A cyclotron accelerates charged particles outwards from the center of a flat cylindrical vacuum chamber along a spiral path. The particles are held to a spiral trajectory by a static magnetic field and accelerated by a rapidly varying electric field. Lawrence was awarded the 1939 Nobel Prize in Physics for this invention. The cyclotron was the first "cyclical" accelerator.

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