Ultra-low cost coil fabrication approach for ARIES-ST

The extremely large capital expense of fusion power core components has severely diminished the overall attractive features of fusion-generated electrical power. A fresh examination of possible new manufacturing techniques yielded two ultra-low cost methods to fabricate the massive toroidal field (TF) coils of the ARIES-Spherical Torus (ARIES-ST) conceptual power plant. These innovative fabrication approaches are estimated to reduce the capital costs of the TF centerpost and return leg shell by an order of magnitude from conventional fabrication processes. This capital cost reduction will, in turn, reduce the cost of electricity by approximately 10%. # 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.