Design study of a power-producing muon catalyzed fusion-fission hybrid reactor

A conceptual design of a power-producing muon catalyzed fusion-fission hybrid reactor was conceived from a technical point of view based on a new concept of the molten-salt target and the equilibrium concentration fissile blanket. The reactor system consists of the molten-salt targets to produce negative pions, the converter, in which pions decay into muons, the synthesizer, filled with a dense deuterium-tritium (DT) mixture in which muons catalyze DT-fusions, and the blanket, in which energy multiplication is achieved using a uranium-plutonium carbide fuel. The energy produced by one muon is estimated as 2.6 GeV, assuming one muon catalyzes 150 Dt-fusions during its lifetime. The energy for muon production is estimated as 13 GeV/μ from the pion production rate and the pion-to-muon conversion rate. This is greater than the energy produced by muon-catalyzed fusion. Using the hybrid blanket containing fissile materials, however, the energy multiplication factor of the blanket is 39 and a positive energy gain is achieved. The reactor power is maintained at approximately 1000 MWe during operation because of the use of the equilibrium concentration of fissile fuel. (orig.)