Heavy ion fusion systems assessment study

Abstract

The Heavy Ion Fusion Systems Assessment (HIFSA) study was conducted with the specific objective of evaluating the prospects of using induction linac drivers to generate economical electrical power from inertial confinement fusion. The study used algorithmic models of representative components of fusion system to identify favored areas in the multidimensional parameter space. The results show that cost‐of‐electricity (COE) projections are comparable to those from other (magnetic) fusion scenarios, at a plant size of 1000 MWe. These results hold over a large area of parameter space, but depend especially on effecting savings in the cost of the accelerator by using ions with a charge‐to‐mass ratio about three times higher than has been usually assumed. The feasibility of actually realizing such savings has been shown: (1) by experiments showing better‐than‐previously‐assumed transport stability for space charge dominated beams, and (2) by theoretical predictions that the final transport and compression of the pulse to the target pellet, in the expected environment of a reactor chamber, may be sufficiently resistant to instabilities, in particular to streaming instabilities, to enable neutralized beams to successfully propagate to the target. Neutralization is assumed to be required for the higher current pulses that result from the use of the higher charge‐to‐mass ratio beams jointly by the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and also by the McDonnell Douglas Astronautics Company with funding from the Electric Power Research Institute.