A Catalysed Deuterium Tokamak Power Plant: Burning Its Own Tritium and Helium-3 in a Closed Fuel Cycle

This paper presents a complete, computed design study of a fusion power plant based on a large conventional tokamak: a large-aspect-ratio tokamak of the class studied for power plants since the 1990s, with a full superconducting magnet set. The fuel is catalysed deuterium, releasing an effective 12 MeV per initial deuterium pair once the tritium and helium-3 products are burned in place. Heating is by neutral-beam injection with ion cyclotron minority heating, and the blanket concept is self-cooled lithium blanket that also serves as the tritium and helium-3 collection medium. Sizing follows from a zero-dimensional energy balance evaluated in the accompanying computation: fusion power 53.14 MW, auxiliary heating 110 MW, plasma gain Q 0.4831, neutron power 20.19 MW, first-wall neutron loading 0.02273 MW per square metre, gross electric output 63.47 MW, recirculating power 193.2 MW and net electric output -129.8 MW. Radiated bremsstrahlung removes 41.04 MW and transport removes 886.8 MW, against alpha-particle self-heating of 23.91 MW. The plant verdict on the stated assumptions is net negative. 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.