ARC fusion reactor

The ARC fusion reactor (affordable, robust compact reactor) is a theoretical design for a fusion reactor that is expected to produce the same amount of power as the most powerful fusion reactor currently under construction, ITER, at only half the size. The ARC design aims to produce 3x the energy required to operate it and if realised prior to ITER, would be the first reactor to exceed breakeven.[1]

The design of the reactor is as proposed in a paper originally in arXiv and subsequently also distributed in the journal Fusion Engineering and Design, in 2015.[2] No plans to build such a reactor exist at this time. The reactor design uses advances in other technologies, such as superconductor advances, to show that a smaller confinement may be theoretically feasible. The paper's authors include academics associated with the Alcator C-Mod reactor, the funding for which ends in 2016.

Design features

The ARC design has several major departures from traditional Tokamak style reactors. The changes occur in the design of the reactor components, whilst making use of the same D-T fusion reaction as current generation fusion devices.

Magnetic field

The magnetic containment design makes use of rare-earth barium copper oxide superconducting tape for its toroidal field coils[3] to achieve a near 10x increase in magnetic field strength, allowing a much more compact tokamak reactor design. The stronger magnetic field makes it possible to sufficiently confine the superhot plasma in a much smaller device than before. In theory, the achievable fusion power of a reaction increases according to the fourth power of the increase in magnetic field strength.[1]

ARC is a 270 MWe tokamak reactor with a major radius of 3.3 m, a minor radius of 1.1 m, and an on-axis magnetic field of 9.2 Teslas (T).[3]

The design point has a plasma fusion gain of Qp ~13.6, yet is fully non-inductive, with a bootstrap fraction of ~63%.[3]

The design is enabled by the ~23 T peak field on coil. External current drive is provided by two inboard RF launchers using 25 megawatts of lower hybrid and 13.6 MW of ion cyclotron fast wave power. The resulting current drive provides a steady state core plasma far from disruptive limits.[3]

Removable core

The design includes a removable fusion power core that does not require dismantling the entire device. That makes it well-suited for research on other design changes.[1]

Liquid blanket

Most of the solid blanket materials used to surround the fusion chamber in conventional designs are replaced by a fluorine lithium beryllium (FLiBe) molten salt that can easily be circulated/replaced, reducing maintenance costs.[1]

The liquid blanket provides neutron moderation and shielding, heat removal, and a tritium breeding ratio \ge 1.1. The large temperature range over which FLiBe is liquid permits blanket operation at 800 K with single phase fluid cooling and a Brayton cycle.[3]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Advances in magnet technology could bring cheaper, modular fusion reactors from sci-fi to sci-reality in less than a decade". Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  2. ↑ "ARC: A compact, high-field, fusion nuclear science facility and demonstration power plant with demountable magnets".
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Sorbom, B. N.; Ball, J.; Palmer, T. R.; Mangiarotti, F. J.; Sierchio, J. M.; Bonoli, P.; Kasten, C.; Sutherland, D. A.; Barnard, H. S. (2014-09-10). "ARC: A compact, high-field, fusion nuclear science facility and demonstration power plant with demountable magnets". arXiv:1409.3540.

External links

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