A Near Symmetrically Illuminated Direct Drive Laser Fusion Power Reactor - SIRIUS-P

I. N. Sviatoslavsky, G. L. Kulcinski, G. A. Moses, D. Bruggink, R. L. Engelstad, H. Y. Khater, E. M. Larsen, E. G. Lovell, J. J. MacFarlane, E. A. Mogahed, R. R. Peterson, M. E. Sawan, P. Wang, L. J. Wittenberg

Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 26 | Number 3 | November 1994 | Pages 868-872

Inertial Confinement Fusion Reactor, Reactor Target, and Driver | Proceedings of the Eleventh Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy New Orleans, Louisiana June 19-23, 1994 | doi.org/10.13182/FST94-A40263

Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.

This paper describes the design of a 1000 MWe inertially confined fusion power reactor utilizing near symmetric illumination provided by a KrF laser. The nominal laser energy is 3.4 MJ, the target gain is 118 and the rep-rate is 6.7 Hz. Sixty beams are distributed on ten horizontal planes with six beams in each plane forming a cone with the vertex at the reactor chamber center. The chamber is spherical internally with a radius of 6.5 m and is divided into 12 vertical modules consisting of two independent parts, the first wall assembly and a blanket assembly. The first wall assembly is made of a C/C composite and is cooled with non-breeding granular solid TiO₂ flowing by gravity at a constant velocity. The blanket assembly is made from SiC composite and is cooled with granular Li₂O also flowing by gravity. After going through the heat exchangers, the granular materials are returned to the reactor by means of a fluidized bed. The first wall is protected with a xenon buffer gas at 0.5 torr. The chamber is housed in a cylindrical building 42 m in radius and 86 m high, and is surrounded with a 1.5 m thick biological wall at a radius of 10 m. The laser beam ports are open to the containment building, sharing the same vacuum. Two power conversion cycles have been analyzed, a steam Rankine cycle with an efficiency of 47% and an advanced He gas Brayton cycle at an efficiency of 51%. The nominal COE is ∼65 mills/kWh assuming an 8% interest on capital.