{"id":12997,"date":"2016-08-06T01:17:17","date_gmt":"2016-08-06T05:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=12997"},"modified":"2021-10-05T14:39:55","modified_gmt":"2021-10-05T18:39:55","slug":"sci-tech-mit-sparc-project-aims-to-build-demo-fusion-power-reactor-with-private-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=12997","title":{"rendered":"Sci-Tech: MIT SPARC project aims to build demo fusion power reactor with private funds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the years I’ve posted a number of times about innovative fusion power projects that are underway in various\u00a0places (e.g. see Tri-Alpha Energy<\/a>,\u00a0General Fusion<\/a>, Lockheed Compact Fusion<\/a>,\u00a0EMC2 polywell<\/a>, Helion Energy<\/a>,\u00a0and LPP focus fusion<\/a>) each aims for a much smaller and practical power plant than\u00a0the giant ITER<\/a> tokomak and NIF<\/a> laser inertial confinement projects that consume most all of the government funding for fusion power. (Similar to the way SLS<\/a>\/Orion<\/a> eat\u00a0huge chunks of\u00a0NASA funding that should go instead for development of technologies that would actually benefit and accelerate the exploration and development of space.) So most of these are using private funding with perhaps a trickle of government funding.<\/p>\n

\"iter\"
\nThe ITER design. Note the person for scale.<\/em><\/p>\n

The MIT Affordable Robust Compact<\/em> (ARC) fusion reactor looks like a conventional toroidal (i.e. doughnut shaped) design approach like a\u00a0tokamak<\/a> but it is drastically smaller and less complex than ITER. It accomplishes this by\u00a0employing\u00a0super high magnetic fields now possible\u00a0with coils made from\u00a0rare-earth barium copper oxide (REBCO) superconducting tapes\u00a0that\u00a0are proven and commercially available<\/a>. Such high fields allow for a much smaller containment vessel for the 100 million degree plasma of deuterium\u00a0and\u00a0tritium ions and in turn the volume (and cost) of the reactor\u00a0shrinks\u00a0dramatically.<\/p>\n

\"ARC-Concept\"<\/a>MIT ARC fusion pilot plant concept design.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"ARC-Concept-Modular\"<\/a>The\u00a0heat would be extracted via a blanket of liquid\u00a0FLiBe<\/a>\u00a0molten salt that surrounds the containment vessel. Neutrons from the D-T reaction<\/a> heat up this liquid, which will in turn heat up water\u00a0for a\u00a0conventional steam generator to produce electricity.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, ARC uses a\u00a0modular design that allows for relatively easy removal and replacement of the containment vessel, which will be damaged over time by the neuron bombardment.<\/p>\n

The molten salt\u00a0blanket approach is much simpler than the complex mechanical piping structure planned for ITER, which will require long shutdowns to disassemble the reactor and replace the damaged components.<\/p>\n

ITER will cost\u00a0$40 billion, take decades to complete, and is only a science experiment. It will produce 500W of thermal energy but no \u00a0electricity. Development of an ARC reactor that would provide 500W thermal and 200MW of actual electricity for the grid and would cost less than a tenth of ITER.<\/p>\n

The MIT group has designed a small demonstration reactor called \u00a0SPARC, Soonest\/Smallest Private-Funded Affordable Robust Compact<\/em>, that they estimate will cost in the $300M range. And, as the name says, they believe they can fund it with non-government money. Some money\u00a0may come from a new MIT fund that is backing various leading edge technologies.<\/p>\n