An overview of shared technical challenges for magnetic and inertial fusion power plant development

Abstract

Fusion energy is an area of active development and innovation worldwide, with many design concepts studied, each exhibiting a range of technical challenges. A significant portion of technical challenges will be unique for a given design concept; however, there are several overarching challenges that any design must address to some degree. These include tritium handling and the tritium cycle; materials and their survivability in the high-energy neutron environment of D-T fusion; neutronics and the validation of nuclear data; remote handling and maintenance activities; and integrated holistic approaches to fusion plant design. This paper provides an overview of these aspects for magnetic and inertial fusion approaches with a view to highlighting commonality and the benefits of shared knowledge that this may bring. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘Prospects for high gain inertial fusion energy (part 2)’.

Prospects for high gain inertial fusion energy: an introduction to the second edition

“…These timescales are reinforced in the useful and interesting paper by Chapman & Walden [16]. They present compelling evidence that the common issues associated with fusion power plants, whether they are based upon magnetic or inertial confinement—such as radiation-hardened materials, large-volume tritium handling, blanket technologies, robotics, reactor control systems, diagnostics, etc.—are highly complex and require multi-decade sustained effort that spans national boundaries.…”

Grand Challenges in Nuclear Engineering

“…On the other hand, fusion power generation, an area of active development and innovation worldwide, aims to use light fusable chemical elements, for example the deuterium and tritium isotopes of hydrogen (Pearson and Takeda, 2020;Prager and Najmabadi, 2020). Fusion technology presents a range of scientific and engineering challenges that need to be addressed to enable the construction of a fusion power plant (Chapman and Walkden, 2020). These include the development of a reliable and safe tritium and deuterium extraction and handling technology, the integration of structural and functional materials in a power plant design, and the extensive use of remote handling and robotics in the maintenance of a power plant.…”