PPPL-3666 is available in pdf format.

Systems Analysis of a Compact Next Step Burning Plasma Experiment

Authors: S.C. Jardin, C.E. Kessel, D. Meade, and C. Neumeyer

Date of PPPL Report: February 2002

Published in: Fusion Science and Technology 43 No 2 (March 2003) 161-175

A new burning plasma systems code (BPSC) has been developed for analysis of a next step compact burning plasma experiment with copper-alloy magnet technology. We consider two classes of configurations: Type A, with the toroidal field (TF) coils and ohmic heating (OH) coils unlinked, and Type B, with the TF and OH coils linked. We obtain curves of the minimizing major radius as a function of aspect ratio R(A) for each configuration type for typical parameters. These curves represent, to first order, cost minimizing curves, assuming that device cost is a function of major radius. The Type B curves always lie below the Type A curves for the same physics parameters, indicating that they lead to a more compact design. This follows from that fact that a high fraction of the inner region, r < R-a, contains electrical conductor material. However, the fact that the Type A OH and TF magnets are not linked presents fewer engineering challenges and should lead to a more reliable design. Both the Type A and Type B curves have a minimum in major radius R at a minimizing aspect ratio A typically above 2.8 and at high values of magnetic field B above 10 T. The minimizing A occurs at larger values for longer pulse and higher performance devices. The larger A and higher B design points also have the feature that the ratio of the discharge time to the current redistribution time is largest so that steady-state operation can be more realistically prototyped. A sensitivity study is presented for the baseline Type A configuration showing the dependence of the results on the parameters held fixed for the minimization study.