A comparison of pulsed and steady-state tokamak reactor burn cycles. Part II: Magnet fatigue, power supplies, and cost analysis

Abstract

Pulsed operation of a tokamak reactor imposes cost penalties due to such problems as mechanical fatigue and the need to periodically transfer large amounts of energy to various reactor components. This study focuses on lifetime limitations and capital costs of reactor subsystems in an attempt to quantify sensitivity to pulsed operation. Major problem areas include: fatigue in pulsed poloidal field coils; out-of-plane bending fatigue in toroidal field coils; electric power supply costs; and noninductive current driver costs. A capital cost comparison is made for tokamak reactors operating under the four distinct operating cycles which have been proposed. Since high availability and a low cost of energy will be mandatory for a commercial fusion reactor, we can characterize improvements in physics and technology which will help achieve these goals for different burn cycles. A key conclusion is that steady-state operation is likely to result in the least expensive tokamak reactor (perhaps 20% cheaper than the best pulsed reactor), provided noninductive current drive efficiency can be increased roughly four-fold over present-day experimental results.