Transcript ppt - Advanced Energy Technology Program

Reducing the Costs of Targets for Inertial
Fusion Energy
G.E. Besenbruch, D.T. Goodin, J.P. Dahlburg, K.R. Schultz,
A. Nobile1, E.M. Campbell
General Atomics, P.O. Box 85608, San Diego, California 92186-5608
1Los Alamos National Laboratory, Albuquerque, New Mexico
HAPL Project Review
Pleasanton, California
November 13-14, 2001
(IFSA2001 Paper #1113)
Feasibility of economical target fabrication is a critical
issue for IFE power plants
 A number of power plant conceptual designs are available
 pulsed power systems that operate at ~6-10 Hz
 Must supply about 500,000 targets per day with:
- precision geometry, and cryogenic, layered DT fill
Concept for “HILIFE-II”
IFE 1000 MW(e) Power
Plant (Chamber radius =
3 meters)
.... Cost reductions from about $2500 to about $0.25 per target
are needed for economical electricity production
Preliminary target designs have been identified
Some Expected Direct Drive
Specifications
Capsule Diameter
4 mm
Shell Wall Thickness
200 m
Foam shell density
20-120 mg/cc
Out of Round
<1% of radius
Non-Concentricity
<1% of wall thickness
Shell Surface Finish
500 Angstroms RMS
Ice Surface Finish
<2 m RMS
NRL Radiation
Preheat Target
The heavy-ion driven target has a
number of different regions
6
r (mm)
B
4
C
D
M
2
0
N
0
2
J
I
L
Nuclear Fusion 39(11)
D. A. Callahan-Miller
and M. Tabak
0.25 g/cc
foam
E
F G
H
K
Other Potential
Direct Drive
Target Concepts
Empty Outer
Foam
A
4
6
z (mm)
Dense
ablator
Seal, DT
10
Regions of lowdensity foams
and unique
materials
Seal, DT
Thick
Outer
Capsule
8
LLNL Close-Coupled
HI Target
Cost reductions of four orders of magnitude are
challenging - but feasible
Current cost
~$2500/target
~3500 µm
~1000 µm
GDP
Gas cooled reactor
fuel particle
with 4
PAMS
coating layers
Fuel particle scaleup experience is
encouraging for IFE
Inertial fusion
energy target
.... GA has previously used fluidized bed technology to reduce costs
of coated nuclear fuel particles and produced over 1011 particles!
Technological improvements lead to dramatic
changes in products (i.e. Moore's Law)
Technology
Review, C. Mann,
May/June 2000
.... The number of transistors on a chip increased 4 orders of
magnitude from 1971 to 1999
Moore's law analogies can be applied directly to
cost reductions
Main
memory
cost per
byte (pence)
Ref:
http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~cfi/Networks/WorkStations
/Workstations5.htm
Year
The cost of computer memory decreased by 106 between 1970 and 1990.
This was achieved through reductions in process costs and improvements
in manufacturing technology.
One can estimate IFE target production costs
beginning with current experimental-target costs
 One can find the approximate cost per current-day target by
Total Project Cost/ Number of Delivered Targets = ~$2500 (capsule only)
 However, there are tremendous differences in the program
requirements - and in the consequent approaches to manufacture
Item
Production Rate
FOAK Costs
Characterization
Product Yield
Batch sizes
Experimental Program
Relatively Small (~2500 targets per year by GA)
Very high - targets always vary
Extensive - individual details needed
Low - product varies, small amounts needed
Small - small amounts needed (<100)
… IFE target
cost reductions
will be achieved
by
Eliminating
FOAK Costs
Increasing
Batch Sizes
IFE Program
500,000 per day
Essentially none
Statistical sampling
High
Large
Reducing
Characterization
Increasing
Yield
Costs will be dramatically lower when targets are
identical - eliminates First of a Kind (FOAK) costs
Today, few targets are made
more than once!
M=Metal
M-GDP
Wall thickness, µm
 Currently delivered targets are
nearly always unique - with
most of the labor going to
development and trial runs
 We estimate the average FOAK
labor now as hundreds of
hours
 These costs will be minimal for
IFE production
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
X=Halogen
GDP
M-X-GDP
X-GDP
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
target batch #
Example - Dopants and wall thicknesses vary
on each batch ordered for experiments.
.... For IFE, a single type of target is repeatedly produced, and
FOAK development costs are essentially eliminated
Large savings can be achieved in characterization and QC
Currently, shot-quality targets are highly
characterized before delivery  “pedigree”
with detailed data on individual targets.
Current manual characterization - ~8 hours per shell
For the IFE Target Fabrication Facility,
the cost of QC is reduced by:
- reduced precision in IFE target designs
- statistical sampling for process control
- only periodic in-depth checks
- automated characterization equipment
.... Major characterization cost
reductions can be achieved
Future automated system for dimensional
inspection of IFE target foam shells
Process development focusing on routine production
will result in high product yields
First-of-a-kind thin walled
capsules have low yield (imploded
during solvent extraction)
FOAK
batches: low
yields (1-5%)
Target
Fabrication
Process
Development
Programs
After R&D and applying the science to
process conditions, implosions are
almost eliminated.
High Yields (like
chemical industry
processes) of
>95% but same
operations cost
IFE target development programs must provide the
technology basis for batch size increases and high yields
Aqueous
phase
Non aqueous
polymer solution
Solid shell
Droplet
generation
Aq
Aq
aq
Aq
Aq
Loss of
organic solvent
Air
dry
Microencapsulation is inherently a high-volume
production process
Coating
Example bounce-pan
holds 4-100
shells for
coating
Scaleable Processes
Microencapsulation (shells)
Fluidized bed coatings (shells)
Interfacial polycondensation (seal coats)
Sputter-coating (high-Z coatings)
Casting (foams, hohlraum cases)
Assembly (hohlraums, cryogenic, remote)
Example - two 9"
diameter fluidized
bed coaters can
produce 500,000
particles per day
9" ID nuclear
fuel coater
Bounce Pan
Target filling and layering methods must be scaled
Fluidized Bed
to high throughputs
The first full target
supply system is at
OMEGA 
4 filled/layered
targets/day
Concept for
Capsule
Layering
U PPER PYLON
TARGET
C HAMBER
Tube Layering
Concept for
Hohlraums
Glove bo x
FILL/TRANS FER
STATION
R OOM 1 57
UR TRITIUM
FILLING
STATION
DT HIGH
PRES SURE S YSTEM
GLOVE BOX
LOW ER PYL ON
LA CAVE
MOVING
C RYOSTAT
MOVING CR YOSTAT
TR AN SPOR T C ART
MOVING
C RYOSTAT
EL EVATOR
INJECT IR
FLUIDIZED
BED WITH
GOLD
PLATED (IR
REFLECTING)
INNER WALL
ASSEMBLED
HOHLRAUMS ARE
STAGED IN
VERTICAL TUBES
WITH PRECISE
TEMPERATURE
CONTROL
Pressure cell with trays
COLD HELIUM
36 " I.D. X 40 " Tall, 8 trays,
290,000 targets
.... Basic premise: develop
processes so small crews can
operate
Anticipated target injection and tracking costs are low
Target injection critical issues
1) Withstand acceleration during injection
2) Survive thermal environment
3) Accuracy and repeatability, tracking
Must supply about 500, 000 targets per day for a 1000
MW(e) power plant
1) Injection placement accuracy to ±5 mm
2) Indirect/direct drive tracking and beam steering
to less than ±200/20 m
Spring
Target
HYLIFE-II power plant concept
showing basic injector components
Direct drive target sabot
.... Additional work will be needed to define injection costs
Major steps to reduce IFE target manufacturing costs
Cost Item
Current Cost
Per Shell ($)
Production
Cost ($)
Comment
Total Cost 
~$2752
$0.083
Per "shot-quality" target
Eliminate
FOAK (R&D)
$1200
~0
Produce a fixed target design
Reduce
Characterization
- Support R&D
- Pedigree
225
1200
~0
<$0.05
No R&D support
 Process control
Manufacturing
Cost
-Labor (yield, batch size)
-Materials Cost
$0.013
125
2
$0.02
The vast majority of the cost
reductions come from
eliminating R&D and the QC
“pedigree” for each target.
.... Additional work will be needed to define filling, layering, and
injection costs
Summary and conclusions
Current experimental-target fabrication costs need to be reduced about four
orders of magnitude for economical IFE power production
Cost reductions of 104 or more from early fabrication to mass-production are
common in high-tech industries
Reductions from the current cost will be achieved by:
- eliminating first-of-a-kind and development efforts inherent in today's
experimental-targets
- reducing the cost of QC by implementing statistical process control and
automating inspection processes
- developing equipment and processes for large batch sizes and/or continuous
production
- conducting the development programs necessary to achieve high product yields
.... A significant development program is needed to provide lowcost mass-production of IFE targets