Advanced-Fuel Reversed-Field Pinch Fusion Reactor (DD/RFPR): Preliminary Considerations

摘要

The use of deuterium-based fuels offers the potential advantages of greater flexibility in blanket design, significantly reduced tritium inventory, potential reduction in radioactivity level, and use of an inexhaustible fuel supply. The conventional DT-fueled Reversed-Field Pinch Reactor (RFPR) designs are reviewed, and the extension of these devices to advanced-fuel (catalyzed-DD) operation is presented. Attractive and economically competitive DD/RFPR systems are identified having power densities and plasma parameters comparable to the DT systems. Converting an RFP reactor from DT to DD primarily requires increasing the magnetic-field levels a factor of 2, while still requiring only modest fields at the coils (less than or equal to 4 T). When compared to the mainline tokamak, the unique advantages of the RFP (e.g., high beta, low fields at the coils, high ohmic-heating power densities, unrestricted aspect ratio) are particularly apparent for the use of advanced fuels.