Bringing Fusion to the U.S. Grid (2021) / Chapter Skim
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5 Strategy and Roadmap for a Pilot Plant
5 Strategy and Roadmap for a Pilot Plant
Pages 83-94
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From page 83... ...
This motivates exploring a schedule to bring a pilot plant into operation between 2035 and 2040: this is aggressive relative to recent construction of large fusion facilities and other countries' fusion program plans, with the exception of China's CFETR program and the United Kingdom's recently announced STEP program. Both programs seek to be the first to put electricity from fusion on the grid.
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From page 84... ...
Conclusion: To meet the challenge of operating a pilot plant between 2035 and 2040, the development of fusion concepts, technology, and pilot plant designs will need to be performed in parallel. Parallel development of fusion concepts enables the schedule acceleration required for fusion to be ready as a possible generation alternative as the U.S.
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From page 85... ...
Conclusion: Each successful pilot plant fusion concept must demonstrate that the requisite Lawson parameter to extrapolate fusion plasma gain, particle and energy confinement time, heat exhaust, stability, energetic particle confinement and sustainment, can be achieved with small extrapolation to the parameters needed for a pilot plant to provide confidence in the performance of the pilot plant. The physics parameters required for evaluating a fusion concept for a pilot plant are broadly discussed in Chapters 3 and 4.
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From page 86... ...
It is necessary to increase the maturity of critical technologies that have the largest impact on many different concepts while rec ognizing that the list of critical technologies may evolve as the design of the pilot plant evolves, for example through the conceptual design phase or as breakthrough developments occur. To illustrate this, most fusion concepts rely on deuterium tritium (D-T)
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From page 87... ...
companies; universities; and national laboratories are needed to develop pilot plant concepts to ensure a robust engineering design and a reliable cost and schedule. Recommendation: The Department of Energy should move forward now to foster the creation of national teams, including public-private partnerships, that will develop conceptual pilot plant designs and technology roadmaps and lead to an engineering design of a pilot plant that will bring fusion to commercial viability.
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From page 88... ...
After TABLE 5.1 Various Activities in Support of the Development of a Fusion Pilot Plant Recommendation Completed by or Innovation Immediate Category Action Conceptual Design Preliminary Design Final Design Construction Organization Create national Complete concept Select and Execute Fusion Pilot Plant and design teams to initiate Enhance teams consolidate design and construction design from team(s) private sector, Define cost and universities, and schedule national labs Technology Develop Complete Demonstrate Complete final Complete approach technology conceptual design preliminary design construction roadmaps Refine technology design and roadmaps critical technology prototypes Public-private Develop PPP Execute PPPs Refine and expand PPPs partnerships models for (PPP)
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From page 89... ...
S t r at e g y and Roadmap for a Pilot Plant 89 TABLE 5.1 Continued Recommendation Completed by or Innovation Immediate Category Action Conceptual Design Preliminary Design Final Design Construction Regulatory Develop Finalize Obtain required licenses regulatory regulatory needs/framework framework Site Develop site Develop site requirements and options Workforce Define Execute DEI Improve workforce growth consistent with DEI plan Diversity, improvement Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) plan Plasma Improve plasma performance and Demonstrate Evolve and improve projections performance predictive capability equivalent Qp>1 to Qp > 1, Qe > 1 and required availability Actuators Define actuator Develop actuator Design and deploy actuators needs technology Heat exhaust Define heat Demonstrate heat Implement solutions exhaust challenge exhaust solutions Tritium/fuel Define tritium/ Demonstrate Demonstrate cycle fuel cycle tritium/fuel efficient tritium/ requirements cycle process fuel cycle Design technology processing demonstration Blanket Define blanket Operate blanket Finalize design and build 1st and test facility test facility generation requirements Obtain data Design blanket test facility Neutron material Design limited Operate neutron Acquire further data degradation volume neutron source, obtain Confirm material and design source initial results Structural Develop high Obtain requisite Implement requirements design temperature data requirements structural design requirements Plasma-facing Define PFC Design and test Fabricate and install PFC components requirements PFCs (PFCs)
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From page 90... ...
SECOND PHASE OF PILOT PLANT OPERATION (COMPLETED BY 2040-2045) The purpose of this phase is to resolve the scientific and technical issues and enable the fusion industry developers and power plant owners and operators to evaluate both the cost of a FOAK power plant as well as project the cost of produc ing electricity.
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From page 91... ...
Conclusion: The second phase of a pilot plant should demonstrate peak 50-100 MWe net electricity production and average net electricity generated for at least one environmental cycle, which includes the outage to perform maintenance and replacement of in-vessel components. THIRD PHASE OF PILOT PLANT OPERATION The pilot plant may be a viable test bed for materials testing and exploring new technologies to further improve the concept.
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From page 92... ...
While the recent 2020 CPP and FESAC reports have identified the broad issues, these technology roadmaps will provide a greater level of detail and focus on the advances required for each particular conceptual design strategy. There is also a risk that some of the research development effort will identify that the key goals either cannot be met or result in significant schedule delay; this should not be considered a failure but the result of a healthy, diverse approach to a dif ficult, integrated design.
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From page 93... ...
In support of the key goals in Chapter 3, the scientific and technical innovations required to both demonstrate feasibility and address the cost requirements of the marketplace were presented in Chapter 4. Fusion development will require participation by industry, including companies developing fusion energy, building components and provid ing EPC services, national laboratories, and universities bringing together a broad range of skills.
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From page 94... ...
3. Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee, 2018, "Fusion Energy Sciences Advisory Committee Report: Transformative Enabling Capabilities for Efficient Advance Toward Fusion Energy," up dated February 15, https://science.osti.gov/-/media/fes/fesac/pdf/2018/TEC_Report_15Feb2018.
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