Speaker
Chiara Bustreo
(Consorzio RFX)
Description
The cost of the electricity (COE) generated by a fusion power plant is a key driver for the technology future energy market deployment. Hence, the ongoing researches on the pulsed DEMO design optimization, taking into account the physical and technical constraints, are putting priorities on the minimization of the DEMO direct costs that indeed greatly influence the COE.
Also the duty cycle of a pulsed fusion power plant, defined as the ratio between the burn time and the duration of the operational cycle, has a relevant weight on the COE. In fact maximizing the burn phase fraction and hence the electricity production turns into the COE minimization.
However the typical operational cycle of a pulsed fusion power plant consists of a sequence of phases whose length cannot be chosen arbitrary. Researches are currently underway to estimate the optimal duration of each phase as a function of both physical (e.g. plasma stability) and technical (e.g. structural mechanical stresses) constraints.
The recommendations arising from the most recent studies on each specific cycle phase are gathered and used to perform sensitivity analysis on the COE. Specifically, a pulsed DEMO-like power plant with a burn time of 2 hours is modeled with the aid of the FRESCO System Code and an assessment of the effect of the operational cycle structure on the COE is carried out. The study is also supported by stochastic analyses.
This work is intended to contribute in the economic assessment of a pulsed DEMO-like power plant and support the DEMO design optimization activities.
Co-authors
Chiara Bustreo
(Consorzio RFX, Corso Stati Uniti 4, 35127, Padova, Italy)
Daniele Maggio
(Consorzio RFX, Corso Stati Uniti 4, 35127, Padova, Italy)
Giuseppe Zollino
(Department of Industrial Engineering, Università degli Studi di Padova, via Gradenigo 6a, 35131, Padova, Italy;Consorzio RFX, Corso Stati Uniti 4, 35127, Padova, Italy)
