An Assessment of the Prospects for Inertial Fusion Energy (2013) / Chapter Skim
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4 A Roadmap for Inertial Fusion Energy
4 A Roadmap for Inertial Fusion Energy
Pages 146-170
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From page 146... ...
The committee had extensive discussions about which type of roadmap for an IFE demonstration plant would best meet the needs of the Department of Energy (DOE) and its oversight committees and agencies.
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From page 147... ...
target shots using reactor-scale driver energy that generates high gain for the relevant TA. An FTF may be used initially for demonstrations of gain at very low fre quency, followed by an increasing repetition rate to within an order of magnitude of the repetition rate of a commercial power plant, accumulating a total number of shots exceeding, say, 106 per year, or perhaps 105 for pulsed power fusion (since pulsed power would operate at a lower repetition rate and higher yield/target compared to other approaches)
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From page 148... ...
The event based roadmap provided in this chapter uses these two events (ignition and modest gain) as early milestones that could trigger the creation of a robust IFE program.
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From page 149... ...
TABLE 4.1 Technology Readiness Levels Basic Technology Research TRL 1: Basic principles observed and reported TRL 2: Technology concept/application formulated Research to Prove Feasibility TRL 3: Proof of concept Technology Development TRL 4: Validation in laboratory environment TRL 5: Integrated component validation in laboratory Technology Demonstration TRL 6: Engineering/pilot scale validation System Commissioning TRL 7: Prototypical system demonstration TRL 8: System qualified through test and demonstration System Operations TRL 9: Full range of actual system operations
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From page 150... ...
Rej, and J Sethian, "White Paper Compilation on Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE)
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was created in 1999 by DOE's Office of F usion Energy Sciences (OFES) to coordinate and represent all magnetic fusion technology a ctivities funded by OFES.
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From page 152... ...
Recommendation 4-2: The national inertial fusion energy program should be organized according to three technical applications: laser systems, heavy ion systems, and pulsed power systems. Recommendation 4-3: The Department of Energy should consider the estab lishment of virtual laboratories for each technical application with sufficient internal expertise for the various approaches to advance technically and maintain innovation.
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From page 153... ...
Next, it concluded that at this time, there appear to be no insurmountable IFE fusion technology barriers to the realization of the components of an IFE system, although knowledge gaps and large performance uncertainties remain, including for the performance of the system as a whole. And finally it determined that significant IFE technology research and engineering efforts are required to identify and develop solutions for critical technology issues and systems, such as: targets and target systems; reaction chambers (first wall/ blanket/shield)
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From page 154... ...
Absent ignition, any IFE program will be severely limited in scope.
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From page 155... ...
For all approaches to inertial fusion energy examined by the committee (diode pumped lasers, krypton fluoride lasers, heavy-ion accelerators, pulsed power; indirect drive and direct drive) , there remain critical scientific and engineering challenges associated with establishing the technical basis for an inertial fusion energy demonstration plant.
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From page 156... ...
Accordingly, the committee's analysis was based on the effort at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in 2011-2012 to achieve ignition under the National Igni tion Campaign (NIC)
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Recommendation 4-4: The Department of Energy should use a milestone based roadmap approach, based on technology readiness levels (TRLs) , to assist in planning the recommended national IFE program leading to a demonstration plant.
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From page 158... ...
For that reason, the committee rec ommends below that a science advisory committee focused on IFE be formed to advise decision makers on detailed allocations of resources and beam time for NIF as well as to develop the post-ignition roadmap. Recommendation 4-5: Future inertial fusion energy-related experiments on the National Ignition Facility should be reviewed by an Inertial Fusion Energy Scientific Advisory Committee (ISAC)
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From page 159... ...
It is important that the competition between these two approaches not interfere with the best use of the NIF facility for IFE development. The pre-ignition roadmap described in this report is meant to be an example of the kind of contingency planning that the committee believes DOE should undertake across TAs, with the advice and review of the Inertial Fusion Energy Scientific Advisory Committee, as recommended above.
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From page 160... ...
However, under this scenario, a commitment should be made to undertake pretesting of polar direct drive on the National Ignition Facility and, if the pretests are successful, prepare NIF to test polar direct drive. Even if ignition should be reached with indirect drive before polar direct drive becomes operational, the funding for direct drive will still have been well spent, for it is desirable to test polar direct drive in the hope of getting a higher gain (with the same drive energy)
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From page 161... ...
If calculations are confirmed, fewer targets would be needed to pro duce a given amount of power, or the driver repetition rate or driver energy could be reduced, thereby reducing costs. TRLs FOR INERTIAL FUSION ENERGY An important question is which facilities will need to be built to successfully reach the goals of the IFE program.
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From page 162... ...
Target manufacture GA work, HAPL NIF ATFF/FTF DEMO Driversa Depends on system FTF DEMO Controlb HAPL NIF FTF DEMO Diagnostics OMEGA, etc. NIF FTF DEMO Materialsc MFE IFMIF FTF DEMO Tritium breed MFE, lab tests liquids ITER FTF DEMO Tritium system JET, TFTR, TSTA ITER FTF DEMO Power handling ITER, FTF DEMO Remote handling JET ITER, FTF DEMO Reliability FTF DEMO Availability FTF DEMO Safety NIF ITER, FTF DEMO Waste handling TFTR, JET, fission facilities, ITER, FTF FTF DEMO NOTE: NIF, National Ignition Facility; FTF, Fusion Test Facility; DEMO, Demonstration Power Plant; HAPL, High Average Power Laser program; GA, General Atomics; ATFF, Automated Target Fabrication Facility; MFE, magnetic fusion energy; IFMIF, International Fusion Materials Irradiation Facility; ITER, International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor; JET, Joint European Tokamak; TFTR, Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor; and TSTA, Tritium System Test Assembly.
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From page 163... ...
The magnetized target fusion approach is studied by LANL and the Air Force Research Laboratory.11 Previous funding sources for IFE R&D have been diverse and have included Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) funds at the NNSA laboratories -- for example, Laser Inertial Fusion Energy (LIFE)
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From page 164... ...
The largest technology component of the NNSA stockpile stewardship budget deals with target physics. Based on information provided to the committee, this support appears to be around $260 million per year.12 At this stage the objectives for target physics of the NNSA's ICF program are relevant to the inertial fusion energy program.
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From page 165... ...
made a combined magnetic fusion energy and inertial fusion energy programmatic cost estimate.13 Based upon that report and the LIFE point design forecast,14 the committee's order-of-magnitude estimates for facility capital costs, subject to the DOE G 413.3-4 process, are provided in Table 4.5. 13 FESAC, Fusion Development Panel, 2003, A Plan for the Development of Fusion Energy, March.
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TABLE 4.5 Estimated Inertial Fusion Energy Roadmap Facility Capital Cost Forecast (millions of dollars) a,b,c Facility Cost NIF upgrade (polar drive)
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From page 167... ...
The roadmap concept put forward by this committee carries forward all IFE approaches to some point at which off-ramp or continuation decisions are made. Should the NIF achieve ignition with indirect drive and the nation decide to pursue IFE, the R&D required to pursue IFE as a practical energy option would begin to diverge from the R&D that NNSA is likely to support for stockpile stewardship applications.
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From page 168... ...
Such a program element can be enhanced by identifying synergistic opportunities between the magnetic fusion energy and IFE programs and incorporating them in both programs. Conclusion 4-13: The appropriate time for the establishment of a national, coordinated, broad-based inertial fusion energy program within DOE is when ignition is achieved.
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From page 169... ...
For a national IFE program, NIF can be utilized for ignition optimization and for demonstration of reactor-scale gain and of reactor-scale gain with more costeffective targets, as the target physics of direct drive and indirect drive advance technically. Furthermore, modification of NIF to accommodate polar direct drive would not preclude further experiments with indirect drive.
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From page 170... ...
In the interim, while IFE is being funded by several offices, it is important to utilize to the maximum extent possible existing facilities in the NNSA and Office of Fusion Energy Sciences programs to minimize costs as much as possible. This will also be true if a national IFE program is established.
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