Direct Converter Design for the MINIMARS Tandem Mirror Reactor

ABSTRACT

We report on the final design of the direct converter for MINIMARS, a tandem mirror power reactor project at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The project objectives are to design a plant to produce electricity at less than 50 mils/kWh and design an inherently safe plasma shutdown and heat transport system that sustains no damage from loss of coolant and loss of flow. The direct converter coolant like the blanket coolant is used to generate primary turbine steam. All thermo and structural load bearing elements are designed for the reactor lifetime. The halo scraper sputter lifetime is five full power years. The power to circulate the helium coolant through the direct converter elements is less than 5% of the thermal power recovered.