Simplified fusion power plant costing. A general prognosis and call for 'new think'

A top-level costing model is developed and used to project the cost of electricity (COE) (in mills per kilo watt-hour) expected from conceptual fusion power plants. Application is restricted to magnetic fusion energy (MFE) concepts. These costs are estimated parametrically in terms of the mass of the fusion-power-core (FPC) heater, the power required to sustain a reacting deuterium-tritium plasma, the heat transport/transfer system that delivers the fusion power to the balance of plant (BOP), and the BOP needed to convert the fusion heat to electrical power. Although the highly integrated (simplified) cost-estimating relationships (CERs) used to express COE in terms of FPC mass power density (MPD) [in kilowatt(electric) per tonne] and the engineering gain QE (inverse of fraction of gross electric power recirculated to the fusion power plant) apply primarily to MFE approaches to fusion power, the costing gauge thus results is generally independent of confinement scheme. Improved economic and operational prospects for MFE can be expressed in terms of lineage that begins with higher MPD tokamak configurations embodied in the second-stability and spherical torus regimes and moves toward configurations with increased poloidal field domination, reduced externally generated magnetic fields, and further increases in MPD. This increase, however, must be attained while maintaining both a safe and environmentally attractive configuration and economic QE values. 37 refs., 9 figs., 2 tabs