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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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Proving DRACO will deliver
The United States is now closer than it has been in over five decades to launching the first nuclear thermal rocket into space, thanks to DRACO—the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Orbit.
Sanae-Inoue Itoh, Atsushi Fukuyama, Tomonori Takizuka, Kimitaka Itoh
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 16 | Number 3 | November 1989 | Pages 346-364
Technical Paper | Plasma Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST89-A29126
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The consistency of physics constraints imposed on a core plasma in a tokamak reactor is investigated. Conditions for the steady-state operation of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER)-grade plasma are listed, i.e., the density limit, the critical beta, feasibility of full current-drive and divertor functions, etc. The parameter regime, in which these guidelines are simultaneously satisfied, is investigated. Based on the available data base, the consistency of the conditions is examined. The L-mode scaling of the energy confinement time is employed for extrapolation to the ITER-grade plasma. The Q value and the size dependence are studied. The consistent operating regime of the steady-state operation is found. If off set-linear scaling is applied, the minimum and necessary input power is ∼130 MW, which enables the full current drive and the steady-state operation of Q = 2.3 with Ip = 20 MA. When the input power is increased to 200 MW, a Q value of 5 is predicted.