20 How large would a fusion reactor be? Why?
Description
This article is from the Fusion FAQ, by Robert F. Heeter heeter1@llnl.gov with numerous contributions by others.
20 How large would a fusion reactor be? Why?
Fusion reactors are generally expected to have significant
economies of scale, such that the cost-of-electricity from
a reactor will be most competitive in larger (thousands of
megawatts) plants. The minimum competitive size of a fusion
plant, under current expectations, is probably around
3000 megawatts of fusion power, which (after converting
to electricity) comes to about 1000 to 1500 megawatts of
electric power that can be sold. (The U.S. consumes
about 1 kilowatt of electricity per capita, so 1000
megawatts = 1,000,000 kilowatts = enough energy for a city
of a million people.) It possible that this minimum size
will come down as fusioneers come to understand the physics
and improve their reactor concepts, and it's certainly
possible that the electricity cost will come down.
(More on this in section 2D on fusion energy economics.)
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