Report: Now's the time to invest in an American fusion pilot plant图片展示
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A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine has recommended that if the United States wants to capitalize on its contributions to multi-national projects like ITER and ride the wave of private green energy investment, now is the time for an "urgent" major investment push to build a pilot fusion energy plant to be operational between 2035-2040 – regardless of exactly which fusion technology it will use.
The report was commissioned by the US Department of Energy, and sought input from leading fusion researchers, component manufacturers, power plant operators, fusion developers, regulators and government to address questions around the critical goals and innovations needed to get such a facility up and running.
"A fusion plant producing net electricity should lead to a commercially viable fusion power plant by providing the information needed by utilities to design, build, license and operate future plants," reads the report. "A pilot plant is not meant to demonstrate the economic viability of the commercial plant, but is meant to test the technologies employed and demonstrate high-grade heat extraction to produce electricity, availability for an extended period, and fuel cycle and tritium self-sufficiency; explore techniques to reduce construction and operations cost; demonstrate safe and reliable operations; and provide training to potential operators of future commercial plants."
The report lays out some key technical and innovation challenges that will need to be met along the way, with 2028 set as the target date for a viable design, as well as milestones laid out that certain technologies will have to meet before they can become part of the pilot plant design. If it's to be a deuterium-tritium reactor, for example, the report expects it to "simultaneously demonstrate temperatures of at least 100 million degrees C, and ... a D-T equivalent plasma energy gain > 1." Alternative fuels would need to meet similar guidelines, yet to be laid out.