Fusion power deployment

Abstract

Fusion power plants could be part of a future portfolio of non-carbon dioxide producing energy supplies such as wind, solar, biomass, advanced fission power and fossil energy with carbon dioxide sequestration. In this paper we discuss key issues, for other sources of energy, that could impact fusion energy deployment during the last half of this century. These include geographic issues such as resource availability, scale issues, energy storage requirements and waste issues. The resource needs and waste production associated with fusion deployment in the US should not pose serious problems (Fusion Technology 39 (2001) 513). One important feature of fusion power is the fact that a fusion power plant should be locatable within most local or regional electrical distribution systems. For this reason fusion power plants should not increase the burden of long distance power transmission to our distribution system. In contrast to fusion power, regional factors could play an important role in the deployment of renewable resources such as wind, solar and biomass or fossil energy with CO 2 sequestration. We examine the role of these regional factors and their implications for the deployment of these renewables, fossil, and fusion.