Electrical energy requirements for accelerator and fusion neutrons

The electrical energy requirements and costs of accelerator transmutation o f waste (ATW) and fusion plants designed to transmute nuclides of fission w astes are compared. Both systems use the same blanket concept, but tritium breeding is taken into account for the fusion system. The ATW and fusion pl ants are found to have the same electrical energy requirement per available blanket neutron when the blanket coverage is comparable and the fusion ene rgy gain is near breakeven (Q approximate to 1), but the fusion plant has o nly a fraction of the energy requirement when Q much greater than 1. If the blanket thermal energy is converted to electricity, the fusion plant and A TW have comparable net electricity energy outputs per available neutron whe n Q greater than or equal to 1.5 and the blanket neutron multiplication is large.