An Optimal Burn Regime in a Controlled Tokamak Fusion Power Plant

• Published in: IEEE transactions on plasma science Vol. 44; no. 3; pp. 296 - 305
• Main Authors: Martinell, Julio J., Vitela, Javier E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.03.2016; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Beryllium; Electrons; Fusion reactors; Heating; Impurities; Ions; plasma confinement; Plasma temperature; Temperature; tokamak; Tokamaks; Fusion reactors; tokamak; plasma confinement
• ISSN: 0093-3813; 1939-9375
• DOI: 10.1109/TPS.2016.2521884

The optimal conditions for the burn regimes of a tokamak fusion power plant are obtained under the assumption that electron and ion temperatures can be controlled independently by means of external auxiliary heating. The study of the system is based on a volume-averaged 0-D two-temperature model in which different operating states are obtained by proper adjustment of the deuterium-tritium refueling rate and the auxiliary heating power to electrons and to ions. Optimal operating conditions that maximize Q power gain are determined using plasma operation contour plots. For the H-mode, the optimal burn regimes for a given fusion power are shown to be obtained when the auxiliary heating power to the plasma ions vanishes. The impact on the optimal operating states of varying the enhancement factor of the energy confinement time is found to be important. Impurities composed of beryllium and argon are included in two different scenarios that give similar results. An ideal system free of impurities is also presented to show that a clean plasma would significantly improve its performance.