Fusion power reactor development compared with fission power reactor development

Both fusion and fission reactors are nuclear plants to maintain the nuclear chain reaction to produce neutrons and energy in industrial scale. History of fission reactor development provides us very helpful wisdom to fusion reactor development. The authors have studied the construction history of fission reactors and learned that many neutron reactors, having low temperature and small power density, preceded the development of power reactors and those experiences were essential to the smooth development of power reactors. They arrived at the following conclusions: (1) More efforts should be made to develop and learn the technology of DT steady state burning by plasma neutron source reactors (PNSR), just playing similar roles of neutron reactors in fission reactor development. (2) The objectives of ITER project should be limited to the scientific proof of self ignition of DT fusion to ease its design conditions and get higher confidence of success. (3) The PNSR can also contribute to provide another neutron generator, such as VNS and hybrid reactor, to the nuclear industry in which neutrons are playing essential roles. (author)