Review of commercial nuclear fusion projects

Frontiers in Energy Research

Energy Research

Federico Ledda¹  Francesco Laviano¹  Daniele Torsello¹  Davide Pettinari²  Samuele Meschini²  Bruno Panella²  Raffella Testoni² 

[1] Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy;Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Torino, Torino, Italy;Department of Energy, Politecnico di Torino, Torino, Italy;

关键词: fusion energy;    commercial fusion;    fusion technologies;    magnetic confinement;    inertial confinement;    magnetized target fusion;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fenrg.2023.1157394

 received in 2023-02-02, accepted in 2023-05-18,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Nuclear fusion technologies have re-gained momentum in the last decade thanks to their disruptive potential in different fields, such as energy production and space propulsion, and to new technological developments, especially high temperature superconductor tapes, which allow overcoming previous performance or design limits. To date, reviews of recent nuclear fusion designs are lacking. Therefore, this paper aims at giving a comprehensive overview of nuclear fusion concepts for industrial applications with a focus on the private sector. The designs are classified according to the three leading concepts for plasma confinement, namely, magnetic confinement, inertial confinement and magneto-inertial confinement. The working principles of the main devices are described in detail to highlight strengths and weaknesses of the different designs. The importance of the public sector on private projects is discussed. The technological maturity is estimated, and the main criticalities for each project are identified. Finally, the geographical distribution of the companies (or public institutions) pursuing the design of fusion devices for commercial applications is reported.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Meschini, Laviano, Ledda, Pettinari, Testoni, Torsello and Panella.