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Inertial Fusion Energy Model

As well as magnetic confinement devices, PROCESS has the ability to model inertial fusion plants, in which a laser or ion beam is used to ignite a target pellet containing the fusion fuel.

To activate the inertial fusion energy (IFE) coding, it is necessary to create a file device.dat, containing the single character 3 in the first row, in the working directory. This has the effect of setting the internally-used switch ife = 1. If the file is absent, or its first character is set to something other than 3, the IFE model is not used, and ife is set to 0.

The IFE model1 is controlled using two additional switches.

ifetyp = 0 : Generic device build

ifetyp = 1 : OSIRIS-type device build2 3 4

ifetyp = 2 : SOMBRERO-type device build5 6

ifetyp = 3 : HYLIFE-II-type device build7 8 9

iftype = 4 : 2019 device build

Switch ifetyp defines the type of device that is assumed; this varies widely between different conceptual designs. The generic type assumes a cylindrical symmetric device, while the other types are approximations to the builds of the given conceptual machines10. In general, the build from the centre of the device (at the target ignition location) is in the order: chamber, first wall, gap, blanket, gap, shield, gap, building wall. The user specifies the thicknesses of these regions, and also the materials that are present and in what proportions.

ifedrv = -1 : Driver efficiency and target gain are input as functions of driver energy

ifedrv = 0 : Driver efficiency and target gain are input

ifedrv = 1 : SOMBRERO laser drive efficiency and target gin assumed

ifedrv = 2 : OSIRIS heavy ion beam driver efficiency and target gain are assumed11

Switch ifedrv defines how the code calculates the drivers efficiency and target gain - these are the primary outputs required from the physics part of the model. For the SOMBRERO and OSIRIS cases (ifedrv = 1 and ifedrv = 2, respectively) the driver efficiency and gain are calculated from curves of these parameters as functions of the driver energy, via the two arraysetaxe(1:10) and gainve(1:10) respectively; the element number corresponds to the driver energy in MJ, and outside the range 1-10 MJ the curves are extrapolated linearly. Finally, for the ifedrv = 0 case, the user inputs single values for the driver efficiency (drveff) and target gain (tgain).

Constraint equation no. 50 can be turned on to enable the ignition repetition rate to remain below a user-specified upper limit (rrmax); iteration variable no. 86 (frrmax) is the associated f-value. The other iteration variables relevant for the IFE model are nos. 81-85 (edrive, drveff, tgain, chrad and pdrive).

  1. P. J. Knight, "PROCESS 3009: Incorporation of Inertial Fusion Energy Model", Work File Note F/MI/PJK/PROCESS/CODE/032 ↩

  2. Bourque et al., "Overview of the OSIRIS IFE Reactor Conceptual Design", Fusion Technology 21 (1992) 1465 ↩

  3. Meier and Bieri, "Economic Modeling and Parametric Studies for OSIRIS - a HIB-Driven IFE Power Plant", Fusion Technology 21 (1992) 1547 ↩

  4. Ghose et al., "BOP Designs for OSIRIS and SOMBRERO IFE Reactor Plants", Fusion Technology 21 (1992) 1501 ↩

  5. Sviatoslavsky et al., "A KrF Laser Driven Inertial Fusion Reactor SOMBRERO", Fusion Technology 21 (1992) 1470 ↩

  6. Meier and Bieri, "Economic Modeling and Parametric Studies for SOMBRERO - a Laser-Driven IFE Power Plant", Fusion Technology 21 (1992) 1552 ↩

  7. Moir et al., "HYLIFE-II: A Molten-Salt Inertial Fusion Energy Power Plant Design | Final Report", Fusion Technology 25 (1994) 5 ↩

  8. Moir, "HYLIFE-II Inertial Fusion Energy Power Plant Design", Fusion Technology 21 (1992) 1475 ↩

  9. Ho man and Lee, "Performance and Cost of the HYLIFE-II Balance of Plant", Fusion Technology 21 (1992) 1475 ↩

  10. P. J. Knight, "PROCESS IFE Build Details", F/MI/PJK/LOGBOOK12, pp. 52, 53, 56, 57 ↩

  11. Bieri and Meier, "Heavy-Ion Driver Parametric Studies and Choice of a Base 5 MJ Driver Design", Fusion Technology 21 (1992) 1557 ↩