HYLIFE-II: A Molten-Salt Inertial Fusion Energy Power Plant Design — Final Report

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Abstract
Enhanced safety and performance improvements have been made to the liquid-wall HYLIFE reactor, yielding the current HYLIFE-II conceptual design. Liquid lithium has been replaced with a neutronically thick array of flowing molten-salt jets (Li2BeF4 or Flibe), which will not burn, has a low tritium solubility and inventory, and protects the chamber walls, giving a robust design with a 30-yr lifetime. The tritium inventory is 0.5 g in the molten salt and 140 g in the metal of the tube walls, where it is less easily released. The 5-MJ driver is a recirculating induction accelerator estimated to cost $570 million (direct costs). Heavy-ion targets yield 350 MJ, six times per second, to produce 940 MW of electrical power for a cost of 6.5¢/kW·h. Both larger and smaller yields are possible with correspondingly lower and higher pulse rates. When scaled up to 1934 MW(electric), the plant design has a calculated cost of electricity of 4.5¢/kW · h. The design did not take into account potential improved plant...