Design integration of an inertial fusion energy reactor power plant

Abstract

The author presents the status of design integration efforts on a conceptual design study for a power producing reactor utilizing inertial fusion energy (IFE) technology. PROMETHEUS-L is a 1000 MWe power plant utilizing a KrF excimer laser driver to deliver 5 MJ of energy through 60 beamlines to injected, direct driver targets in the center of a cylindrical reactor cavity at a rate of 4 times/s. The first wall (FW) system of the cavity uses liquid lead which both cools the FW structure of silicon carbide composite and bleeds through the porous, inner surface of the cavity, forming a protective liquid film on the FW surface. The blanket system features SiC composite structure for a Li/sub 2/O packed bed breeder with separate helium purge and helium coolant. The tritium breeding ratio is 1.30. The thermal conversion system features an advanced supercritical Rankine steam cycle with double reheat. The gross thermal efficiency is 43%.<>