Research on Economics and CO2 Emission of Magnetic and Inertial Fusion Reactors

• Published in: Plasma and Fusion Research Vol. 6; p. 2405126
• Main Authors: MORI, Kenjiro, YAMAZAKI, Kozo, OISHI, Tetsutarou, ARIMOTO, Hideki, SHOJI, Tatsuo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Japan Society of Plasma Science and Nuclear Fusion Research 2011
• Subjects: CO2 emission amount rate; COE; inertial fusion reactor; scaling formula; tokamak reactor
• ISSN: 1880-6821; 1880-6821
• DOI: 10.1585/pfr.6.2405126

An economical and environment-friendly fusion reactor system is needed for the realization of attractive power plants. Comparative system studies have been done for magnetic fusion energy (MFE) reactors, and been extended to include inertial fusion energy (IFE) reactors by Physics Engineering Cost (PEC) system code. In this study, we have evaluated both tokamak reactor (TR) and IFE reactor (IR). We clarify new scaling formulas for cost of electricity (COE) and CO2 emission rate with respect to key design parameters. By the scaling formulas, it is clarified that the plant availability and operation year dependences are especially dominant for COE. On the other hand, the parameter dependences of CO2 emission rate is rather weak than that of COE. This is because CO2 emission percentage from manufacturing the fusion island is lower than COE percentage from that. Furthermore, the parameters dependences for IR are rather weak than those for TR. Because the CO2 emission rate from manufacturing the laser system to be exchanged is very large in comparison with CO2 emission rate from TR blanket exchanges.