The dynomak: An advanced spheromak reactor concept with imposed-dynamo current drive and next-generation nuclear power technologies
D.A. Sutherland · T.R. Jarboe · K.D. Morgan · M. Pfaff · E.S. Lavine · Y. Kamikawa · M. Hughes · P. Andrist · G. Marklin · B.A. Nelson
Summary and citation · read the original at the source · none found
In one page
Derek Sutherland, Thomas Jarboe and their University of Washington colleagues take the current-drive mechanism their group found on the HIT-SI experiment — imposed-dynamo current drive, in which steady injectors impose the fluctuations that push the plasma current instead of waiting for instabilities to make them — and build a whole power plant around it. The dynomak is a high-beta spheromak: a self-organised ring of plasma that holds its own magnetic shape, so it needs far less coil structure than a tokamak. The design uses materials available now, plus the cryogenic pumping developed for ITER. A molten FLiBe salt blanket cools the first wall, slows the neutrons and breeds tritium, and a Monte Carlo neutron transport calculation puts the breeding ratio above 1.1. High-temperature superconducting YBCO tape carries the equilibrium coils, cutting the power the plant must recirculate, and zirconium hydride shielding buys those coils at least thirty full-power years. From 2486 megawatts of heat comes 1000 megawatts of electricity, at a capital cost the authors estimate as competitive with conventional power.
Why it matters hereChapter 12 wants a fusion architecture someone can cost, build and run, and this is a complete one — plasma, blanket, magnets, shielding and power cycle, priced. For chapter 9 it is the payoff of the site’s interest in self-organised plasma: the same imposed-fluctuation trick that steers a plasmoid in the laboratory is here carried straight into a reactor.
What it claims
01A high-beta spheromak reactor concept has been formulated with an estimated overnight capital cost that is competitive with conventional power sources.Abstract, sentence 1
Designed, not yet built02The concept is built on imposed-dynamo current drive, the mechanism discovered on the HIT-SI experiment, together with a molten salt FLiBe blanket system that serves at once as first-wall cooling, neutron moderator and tritium breeder.Abstract, sentence 2
Designed, not yet built03Currently available materials and the cryogenic pumping systems developed for ITER were used throughout, on the basis of technological feasibility.Abstract, sentence 3
Designed, not yet built04A tritium breeding ratio greater than 1.1 was calculated using an MCNP5 Monte Carlo neutron transport simulation.Abstract, sentence 4
Published and peer-reviewed05High-temperature superconducting YBCO tapes were used for the equilibrium coil set, substantially reducing the recirculating power fraction compared with previous spheromak reactor studies; with zirconium hydride neutron shielding the limiting equilibrium coil lifetime reaches at least thirty full-power years.Abstract, sentences 5 and 6
Designed, not yet built06Coupling the primary FLiBe loop to a supercritical carbon dioxide Brayton cycle yields an electrical output of 1000 megawatts from a thermal output of 2486 megawatts, an overall plant efficiency of approximately 40 per cent.Abstract, final two sentences
Designed, not yet built
The way in
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fusengdes.2014.03.072LICENCE. The version of record is Fusion Engineering and Design, volume 89, issue 4, pages 412 to 425, published online 18 April 2014; it carries Elsevier’s standard copyright and no Creative Commons statement, and Unpaywall and OpenAlex both mark it closed with no repository copy. SOURCE REACHED. The publisher’s page refuses automated requests, so the full text was not reachable; the authors’ own abstract was read in full from the Crossref record as mirrored by CoLab, and every claim locator below cites that abstract. The design was cross-read against the same group’s public conference presentation, D.A. Sutherland and T.R. Jarboe, Imposed-Dynamo Driven Spheromak Roadmap, 34th Fusion Power Associates Meeting, Washington DC, December 2013, free at fire.pppl.gov/FPA13_sutherland_dynamo.pdf. That presentation predates the paper and its parameter table — 3.75 metre major radius, 41.7 megaamperes of toroidal current, about 2.7 billion dollars overnight — is not quoted here as the paper’s own figures. The complete paper is at the source.
How to cite it
D.A. Sutherland, T.R. Jarboe, K.D. Morgan, M. Pfaff, E.S. Lavine, Y. Kamikawa, M. Hughes, P. Andrist, G. Marklin, B.A. Nelson (2014) The dynomak: An advanced spheromak reactor concept with imposed-dynamo current drive and next-generation nuclear power technologies. doi:10.1016/j.fusengdes.2014.03.072
Where it sits in the curriculum
Plasmoids, charge clusters and the orbsLattice confinement fusion