Current Status, Challenges and Prospects of Controlled Nuclear Fusion: The Economics

This article presents some general considerations related to the economic and financial evaluation of commercial nuclear fusion plants for energy generation. Following the issues described in a previous article, focused on the current technical state of the art, here we present some approximate approaches to assess the economic feasibility of fusion power plants. Given the immaturity of this technology, difficulties and uncertainties will characterize any attempt with this purpose. Currently, public and private research in this field is limited to a experimentation stage, via various types of reactors under laboratory conditions that in the medium term, if the scheduled technical milestones are reached, would be incorporated into the pilot plants layout, prior to the commercial phase. Therefore, the results will be affected by a lack of definition of parameters both of technical and economic and financial nature, inherent to the unknown design and operating rules of the future plants, and the energetic, economic and social uncertainties of the environment in which they will operate. This approach is illustrated with a numerical implementation applied to the cost analysis of two categories of plants, belonging to each of the two groups of plants that can be established, taking into account the technology on which they are based -magnetic and inertial confinement-, without going into the details of the modifications to be adopted when evaluating specific versions in these groups. Finally, a series of issues to be resolved to prevent them from hindering the development of commercial plants are stated, which go beyond the well-known technological difficulties set out in the previous article. Specifically, efforts will be required to establish a clear regulatory framework and design appropriate remuneration policies and practices for nuclear fusion generation plants, including the definition in advance of issues related, among others, to nuclear safety and mitigation of barriers to entry that could appear at the beginning of their pace as a new source of energy among those already existing. Keywords: energy sources, energy prospective, energy technology, controlled nuclear fusion, energy economics, decarbonization.