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Fusion energy: Progress, partnerships, and the path to deployment
Over the past decade, fusion energy has moved decisively from scientific aspiration toward a credible pathway to a new energy technology. Thanks to long-term federal support, we have significantly advanced our fundamental understanding of plasma physics—the behavior of the superheated gases at the heart of fusion devices. This knowledge will enable the creation and control of fusion fuel under conditions required for future power plants. Our progress is exemplified by breakthroughs at the National Ignition Facility and the Joint European Torus.
Massimo Zucchetti
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 60 | Number 2 | August 2011 | Pages 786-790
Safety & Environment | Proceedings of the Nineteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (TOFE) (Part 2) | doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A12481
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In a Deuterium-Tritium fusion reactor, nearly 20% of the thermal power has to be transferred from the hot plasma through the wall components of the burn chamber. Design requirements of commercial fusion power plant in-vessel components are potentially even more stringent than those of experimental devices. Fusion nuclear reactor studies are currently devoted mostly to the Deuterium-Tritium (DT) fuel cycle, since it is the easiest way to reach ignition or a high energy gain. However, reducing the activation of materials is one of the biggest concerns for fusion power: the study of advanced fuel fusion devices, such as the CANDOR Deuterium-Helium-3 (DHe3) tokamak, is proposed for this purpose. The plasma confinement requirements for a DHe3 reactor are much more challenging than those for a DT reactor. Thus, the demands on the divertor and the first wall are more severe, particularly during a disruption. Safety analyses, starting from heat load determinations, have been performed for CANDOR, a proposed DHe3 experiment, starting from similar evaluations carried out for the ARIES III DHe3 reactor.