CRITICAL TECHNICAL ISSUES AND EVALUATION AND COMPARISON STUDIES FOR INERTIAL FUSION ENERGY REACTORS

The critical technical issues, evaluation and comparison of two inerti al fusion energy (IFE) reactor design concepts developed in the Promet heus studies are presented. The objectives of this study were (1) to i dentify and characterize the critical issues and the R&D required to r esolve them, and (2) to establish a sound basis for future IFE technic al and programmatic decisions by evaluating and comparing the differen t design concepts. Each critical issue contains several key physics an d engineering issues associated with the major reactor components and impacts key aspects of feasibility, safety, and economic potential of IFE reactors. Generic critical issues center around: (1) demonstration of moderate gain at low driver energy, (2) feasibility of direct driv e targets, (3) feasibility of indirect drive targets for heavy ions, ( 4) feasibility of indirect drive targets for lasers, (5) cost reductio n strategies for heavy ion drivers, (6) demonstration of higher overal l laser driver efficiency, (7) tritium self-sufficiency in IFE reactor s, (8) cavity clearing at IFE pulse repetition rates, (9) performance, reliability and lifetime of final laser optics, (10) viability of liq uid metal film for first wall protection, (11) fabricability, reliabil ity and lifetime of SiC composite structures, (12) validation of radia tion shielding requirements, design tools, and nuclear data, (13) reli ability and lifetime of laser and heavy ion drivers, (14) demonstratio n of large-scale non-linear optical laser driver architecture, (15) de monstration of cost effective KrF amplifiers, and (16) demonstration o f low cost, high volume target production techniques. Quantitative eva luation and comparison of the two design options have been made with s pecial focus on physics feasibility, engineering feasibility, economic s, safety and environment, and research and development (R&D) requirem ents. Two key conclusions are made based on the overall evaluation ana lysis: (1) The heavy-ion driven reactors appear to have an overall adv antage over laser-driven reactors; and (2) However, the differences in scores are not large and future results of R&D could change the overa ll ranking of the two IFE concepts.