Optimization of steady-state beam-driven tokamak reactors

Abstract

Recent developments in neutral beam technology prompt us to reconsider the prospects for steady-state tokamak reactors. A mathematical reactor model is developed which includes the physics of beam-driven currents and reactor power balance, as well as reactor and beam system costs. This model is used to find the plasma temperatures which minimize the reactor cost per unit of net electrical output. The optimum plasma temperatures are nearly independent of ..beta.. and are roughly twice as high as the optimum temperatures for ignited reactors. If beams of neutral deuterium atoms with near-optimum energies of 1 to 2 MeV are used to drive the current in an INTOR-sized reactor, then the optimum temperatures are typically T/sub e/ approx. = 12 to 15 keV and T/sub i/ approx. = keV for a wide range of model parameters. Net electrical output rises rapidly with increasing deuterium beam energy for E/sub b/ less than or equal to 400 keV, but rises only slowly above E/sub b/ approx. 1 MeV. We estimate that beam-driven steady-state reactors could be economically competitive with pulsed-ignition reactors if cyclic-loading problems limit the toroidal magnetic field strength of pulsed reactors to less than or equal to 85% of that allowed in steady-state reactors.