OPTIMIZATION OF STEADY-STATE BEAM-DRIVEN TOKAMAK REACTORS.

Recent developments in neutral beam technology prompt a reconsideration of the prospects for steady-state tokamak reactors. A mathematical reactor model is developed that includes the physics of beam-driven currents and reactor power balance, as well as reactor and beam system costs. This model is used to find the plasma temperatures that minimize the reactor cost per unit of net electrical output. The optimum plasma temperatures are nearly independent of beta and are roughly twice as high as the optimum temperatures for ignited reactors. If beams of neutral deuterium atoms with near-optimum energies of 1 to 2 MeV are used to drive the current in a reactor the size of the International Tokamak Reactor, then the optimum temperatures are typically T//e approximately equals 12 to 15 keV and T//i approximately equals 17 to 21 keV for a wide range of model parameters. Net electrical output rises rapidly with increasing deuterium beam energy for E//b approximately less than 400 keV, but rises only slowly above E//b approximately equals 1 MeV. It is estimated that beam-driven steady-state reactors could be economically competitive with pulsed-ignition reactors if cyclic-loading problems limit the toroidal magnetic field strength of pulsed reactors to approximately less than 85% of that allowed in steady-state reactors.