IFE power plant design principles. General introduction

This is a general introduction to the principles that govern the design of an inertial fusion energy (IFE) power plant. The possibility of physical separation of the four major systems out of which the plant is made up, namely: the driver, the target factory, the reactor, and the so-called remainder of plant (ROP), is stressed to be an important advantageous feature of IFE plants. It has made it possible to allow for enough design flexibility to result in the proposal of many plausible concepts for each system. This in turn permits that options for the final design can be left open longer. Cost-of-electricity (COE) is briefly discussed, stating that if the COE goal is 5 dollar cents per kilo Watt hour, then the direct capital costs for the driver and target factory together should be less than $400-800 million