A Pilot Plant As The Next Step Toward An MFE DEMO
Authors: G.H. Neilson, D. Gates, J. Menard, S. Prager, S. Scott, J. R. Wilson, and M. Zarnstorff
Abstract: An assessment of Demo goals and of prerequisites for Demo readiness motivate an examination of a pilot plant:
an intermediate facility designed to substantially narrow the technical gap to Demo in a next step. A pilot plant
would: 1) test internal components and tritium breeding in a steady-state fusion environment, 2) prototype a maintainable
design and maintenance scheme for a power plant, and 3) generate net electricity. Preconceptual designs
based on the advanced tokamak (AT), spherical tokamak (ST), and compact stellarator (CS) have been developed in
order to compare their relative merits as fusion systems. Any of them would take a large step toward Demo in key
performance metrics, e.g. engineering gain QENG (≥ 1), neutron wall load (> 1 MW/m2 ), tritium breeding ratio (> 1),
pulse length (106 - 107 s), blanket lifetime fluence (≥ 3 MW-yr/ m2 ), plant lifetime (6-20 MW-yr/ m2 ), and availability
(10-30%), but they differ in their associated risks.
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Submitted to: Plasma and Fusison Research, December 2011 and 21St International Toki Conference (ITC-21) Toki-City, Gifu, Japan
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Download PPPL-4718 (pdf 1.21 MB 4 pp)
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