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(FTP/08) The ARIES-ST Study: Assessment of the Spherical Tokamak Concept as Fusion Power Plants

   
F. Najmabadi , S. Jardin 4, M. Tillack , R. Miller , T. K. Mau , R. Stambaugh 3, D. Steiner 5, L. Waganer 2, and the ARIES Team 
 
University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States of America
2 Boeing,
3 General Atomics,
4 Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory
5 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Abstract
Recent experimental achievements and theoretical studies have generated substantial interest in the spherical tokamak  concept. The ARIES-ST study was undertaken as a national U.S. effort to investigate the potential of the spherical tokamak concept as a fusion power  plant and as a vehicle for fusion development. The 1000-MWe ARIES-ST  power plant has an aspect ratio of 1.6, a major radius of 3.2 m, a plasma elongation (at 95% flux surface) of 3.4 and triangularity of 0.64. This configuration attains a $\beta $ of 54% (which is 90% of the maximum theoretical $\beta $). While the plasma current is 31 MA, the almost perfect alignment of bootstrap and equilibrium current density profiles results in a current-drive power of only 31 MW. The on-axis toroidal field is 2.1 T and the peak field at the TF coil is 7.6 T, which leads to 288 MW of Joule losses in the normal-conducting TF system. The ARIES-ST study has highlighted many areas where tradeoffs among physics and engineering systems are critical in determining the optimum regime of operation for spherical tokamaks. Many critical issues also have been identified which must be resolved in R&D programs.

   

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IAEA 1999