Speaker
Richard Brown
(PMU)
Description
The generation and investigation of alternative design solutions and their benchmarking against criteria that are traceable to high level objectives is a fundamental facet of a holistic systems engineering approach. During the pre-conceptual design phase of DEMO, characterisation studies for multiple plant concepts are being conducted in parallel to explore the design space and evaluate the potential of alternative solutions to areas of plant design where there are known feasibility issues. A systematic assessment of these candidate plant options and selection of the candidate that has the greatest potential to meet requirements for a given risk acceptance, is perhaps the step that will most fundamentally determine the probability of the programme delivering a design that satisfies the requirements overall requirements.
The Eurofusion PPPT PMU is therefore developing a Plant Concept Assessment Framework that shall provide a robust and traceable assessment of DEMO plant concepts against assessment criteria. The framework shall incorporate criteria that represent the full breadth of concerns that are of importance to stakeholders, encompassing area such as safety, plant performance, economic factors, technical risk, environmental & sustainability and timescale to deployment. This framework is being developed in collaboration with industry and will take the lead in performing targeted studies to assess technology assumptions that under-pin a given DEMO concept.
The methodology seeks to follow established approaches developed for the evaluation of innovative nuclear systems in fission, but will be tailored to meet the specific requirements of DEMO concept selection. This assessment framework will perform an important function as DEMO transitions from pre-conceptual to conceptual phase, through facilitating plant concept selection and key system and technology decisions. The paper provides an overview of the framework methodology, the selection criteria and the plan for implementation.
Co-author
Richard Brown
(PMU, EFDA EUROFusion, Garching, Germany)
