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Business Needs Regarding Fusion: Lessons Learned From Alternative Energy
| Author: | Loman J.M. |
| Coauthor: | M. Peter |
| Institution : | GE GRC |
| Abstract text: | Eventual implementation of fusion energy is anticipated to be 50 years away. Fusion eliminates greenhouse gases and has low fuel cost. Wind turbines and photovoltaic arrays exist today; have neither emissions nor cost for fuel. Whether fusion makes sense from a business perspective, is a question that needs to be answered economically. Factors which need to be considered are the future global energy market, share of that market to be captured by fusion power, cost and availability of alternate energy, non-recurring development costs and schedule, return on investment, technology hurdles, degree of invention, plant reliability, radioactive waste considerations, government subsidies, and technology synergies. Is it feasible to make an economic argument for fusion energy development on a time scale of 20 to 30 years, based on future business conditions? In this area, what role could ICC contribute?
We need a program to identify the most promising ICC candidates with respect to economic factors. An initial analysis, evaluating a range of innovative confinement concepts, is needed. The concepts having the most promise of success need to be selected from the many configurations possible. Performance and economics of these fusion power generation systems needs to be analyzed, based on today’s state of the art understanding of ICC fusion technology, as fueled by d-T. The concepts need to be analyzed for nominal plant sizes of 200 MW to 2GW. The overall projected system size, schedule, risk needs to be determined and compared with state-of-the-art alternative energy systems. The initial systems cost of selected ICC fusion configurations needs to be estimated in terms of non-recurring costs ($/W). Technology gaps and required engineering development efforts need to be identified and evaluated. An output of the study should be a prioritization of jugular experiments to support an accelerated fusion program, if deemed economically attractive.
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