Overview of the LIBRA light ion beam fusion conceptual design

The LIBRA light ion beam fusion commercial reactor study is a self-consistent conceptual design of a 330 MWe power plant with an accompanying economic analysis. Fusion targets are imploded by 4 MJ shaped pulses of 30 MeV Li ions at a rate of 3 Hz. The target gain is 80, leading to a yield of 320 MJ. The high intensity part of the ion plate is delivered by 16 diodes through 16 separate z-pinch plasma channels formed in 100 torr of helium with trace amounts of lithium. The blanket is an array of porous flexible silicon carbide tubes with Li/sub 17/Pb/sub 83/ flowing downward through them. These tubes (INPORT units) shield the target chamber wall from both neutron damage and the shock overpressure of the target explosion. The target chamber is self-pumped by the target explosion generated overpressure into a surge tank partially filled with Li/sub 17/Pb/sub 83/ that surrounds the target chamber. This scheme refreshes the chamber at the desired 3 Hz frequency without excessive pumping demands. The blanket multiplication is 1.2 and the tritium breeding ratio is 1.4. The direct capital cost of LIBRA is estimated to be $2200/kWe.