Deuterium-driven D-T fusion reactor test facility

The authors propose an alternative approach to a test facility that eliminates both the need for tritium purchase and allows full testing of the system components as an attractive route for the development of fusion power. The approach is a staged transition in a single engineering test facility from driven deuterium-deuterium (D-D) to full D-T operations. The basic idea is to use the D-D fusion reaction to generate tritium in situ for the D-T reactions to occur at levels comparable to a thermonuclear D-T plasma. The neutrons generated in the process can then be used for material and system testing and for development of effective breeding blankets. The concept differs from fully catalyzed D-D reactors in that it is to be optimized for neutron wall loading rather than power balance. Therefore, the confinement requirements are significantly more relaxes. On the other hand it is possible to attain significant neutron wall loading. There are several advantages associated with this alternative scenario for developing D-T fusion power. First and foremost, it totally eliminates the uncertainty and cost associated with assuring the availability of tritium. Secondly, the approach does not prematurely commit the development of fusion power to a specific confinement configuration. Third, the performance of the device can be continuously upgraded to meet the requirements for more critical testing, thereby compressing the time schedule needed for developing the necessary data