Heat deposition into the superconducting central column of a spherical tokamak fusion plant

A key challenge in designing a fusion power plant is to manage the heat deposition into the central core containing superconducting toroidal field coils. Spherical tokamaks have limited space for shielding the central core from fast neutrons produced by fusion and the resulting gamma rays. This pape...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nuclear fusion 2015-02, Vol.55 (2), p.23014-10
Main Authors: Windsor, C.G., Morgan, J.G., Buxton, P.F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Deposition
fusion reactor
high-temperature superconductors
Mathematical analysis
Mathematical models
Nuclear fusion
Nuclear power generation
Shields
spherical tokamak
Superconductivity
Tokamak devices
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Summary:A key challenge in designing a fusion power plant is to manage the heat deposition into the central core containing superconducting toroidal field coils. Spherical tokamaks have limited space for shielding the central core from fast neutrons produced by fusion and the resulting gamma rays. This paper reports a series of three-dimensional computations using the Monte Carlo N-particle code to calculate the heat deposition into the superconducting core. For a given fusion power, this is considered as a function of plasma major radius R0, core radius rsc and shield thickness d. Computations over the ranges 0.6 m R0 1.6 m, 0.15 m rsc 0.25 m and 0.15 m d 0.4 m are presented. The deposited power shows an exponential dependence on all three variables to within around 2%. The additional effects of source profile, the outer shield and shield material are all considered. The results can be interpolated to 2% accuracy and have been successfully incorporated into a system code. A possible pilot plant with 174 MW of fusion is shown to lead to a heat deposition into the superconducting core of order 30 kW. An estimate of 1.7 MW is made for the cryogenic plant power necessary for heat removal, and of 88 s running time for an adiabatic experiment where the heat deposition is absorbed by a 10 K temperature rise.
ISSN:0029-5515
1741-4326
DOI:10.1088/0029-5515/55/2/023014