A Heavy-Ion Beam Inertial Fusion Plant: Accelerator Efficiency, Indirect-Drive Gain and Chamber Balance at One Hertz

This paper presents a complete, computed design study of a fusion power plant based on a heavy-ion inertial confinement chamber: a large chamber with a thick liquid wall, into which ion beams enter through ports in the flowing liquid. The fuel is deuterium tritium, releasing 17.6 MeV per reaction, of which 14.1 MeV leaves with the neutron and 3.5 MeV stays with the alpha particle. Heating is by heavy-ion accelerator drivers depositing energy in a hohlraum converter, and the blanket concept is thick flowing lithium-lead waterfall protecting the chamber wall and final focusing magnets. Sizing follows from a zero-dimensional energy balance evaluated in the accompanying computation: target gain 76, time-averaged fusion power 1900 MW, driver electrical demand 89.29 MW, gross electric output 942.6 MW and net electric output 775.4 MW. The minimum gain for electrical break-even at the stated driver efficiency is 7.268. Each shot releases 380 MJ of fusion energy from 5 MJ of driver energy delivered to the target, repeated at 5 Hz. The plant verdict on the stated assumptions is net positive. Where a quantity depends on an assumption that experiments have not yet demonstrated at the required value, that dependence is stated numerically so that the design can be re-scored as measurements improve. This study is simulated and computed from stated assumptions; it is not a measurement, and no part of the plant has been built. SIMULATED, NOT MEASURED.