HYLIFE-II - A MOLTEN-SALT INERTIAL FUSION ENERGY POWER-PLANT DESIGN -FINAL REPORT

Enhanced safety and performance improvements have been made to the liq uid-wall HYLIFE reactor, yielding the current HYLIFE-II conceptual des ign. Liquid lithium has been replaced with a neutronically thick array of flowing molten-salt jets (Li2BeF4 or Flibe), which will not burn, has a low tritium solubility and inventory, and protects the chamber w alls, giving a robust design with a 30-yr lifetime. The tritium invent ory is 0.5 g in the molten salt and 140 g in the metal of the tube wal ls, where it is less easily released. The 5-MJ driver is a recirculati ng induction accelerator estimated to cost $570 million (direct costs) . Heavy-ion targets yield 350 MJ, six times per second, to produce 940 MW of electrical power for a cost of 6.5c/kW.h. Both larger and small er yields are possible with correspondingly lower and higher pulse rat es. When scaled up to 1934 MW(electric), the plant design has a calcul ated cost of electricity of 4.5c/kW.h. The design did not take into ac count potential improved plant availability and lower operations and m aintenance costs compared with conventional power plant experience, re sulting from the liquid wall protection. Such improvements would direc tly lower the electricity cost figures. For example, if the availabili ty can be raised from the conservatively assumed 75% to 85% and the an nual cost of component replacement, operations, and maintenance can be reduced from 6% to 3% of direct cost, the cost of electricity would d rop to 5.0 and 3.9c/kW h for 1- and 2-GW(electric) cases.