Commercial Tokamak Reactors with Resistive Toroidal Field Magnets

Abstract

Scaling relations and design concepts are developed for commercial tokamak reactors that use watercooled copper toroidal field (TF) magnets. Illustrative parameters are developed for reactors that are scaled up in size from LITE test reactor designs, which use quasi-continuous copper plate magnets. Acceptably low magnet power requirements may be attainable in a moderate beta (..beta.. = 0.065) commercial reactor with a major radius of 6.2 m. The shielding thickness and magnet size are substantially reduced relative to values in commercial reactors with superconducting magnets. Operation at high beta (..beta.. = 0.14) leads to a reduction in reactor size, magnet-stored energy, and recirculating power. Reactors using resistive TF magnets could provide advantages of physically smaller devices, improved maintenance features, and increased ruggedness and reliability.