Some engineering problems of thermonuclear reactors

Abstract

The features of a hypothetical controlled thermonuclear reactor that today seem most crucial to its performance are considered: the plasma, the vacuum magnetic field, the divertor, the vacuum wall, the energy absorbing blanket and the current-carrying coils. Some of the conditions necessary for a successful reactor are discussed. On the basis of the present limited knowledge of the essentials for a nuclear fusion power plant, a model is selected and its economics examined. It may be concluded that, if the fundamental problem of plasma confinement can be solved and several teohnological requirements met, fusion power stations should be economically successful.