Proposal of a Deuterium-Deuterium fusion / PWR fission hybrid reactor
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: The first version (revision A) of this article has been published in the "World Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology" journal: https://www.scirp.org/pdf/wjnst2024144_31090543.pdfIt has been modified by an Erratum published in the WJNST journal [2025, 15, 53-57]: https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation?paperid=141448. This revision B takes into account this Erratum. Vertical dashes in the margin indicate the Revision B modifications.The differences are on the references 1, 2 and 33 which are, for the previous document, the articles published by the author in the "Energy and Power Engineering" journal and in the "World Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology" journal, whereas, for this document, they are the author articles published in Zenodo (the articles have almost the same content, but the Zenodo articles have a table of contents, hyperlinks and sometimes a different numbering).Abstract This article proposes to associate a Deuterium-Deuterium (D-D) fusion reactor with a PWR (fission Pressurized Water Reactor) in a hybrid reactor. Even if the mechanical gain (Q factor) of the D-D fusion reactor is below the unity and consequently consumes more energy than it supplies, due to the high energy amplification factor of the PWR fission reactor, the global yield is widely superior to 1. As the energy supplied by the fusion reactor is relatively low and as the neutrons supplied are mainly issued from D-D fusions (at 2.45 MeV), the problems of heat flux and neutrons damage connected with materials, as with D-T fusion reactors, are reduced. Of course, there is no need to produce Tritium with this D-D fusion reactor. This type of reactor is able to incinerate any mixture of natural Uranium, natural Thorium and depleted Uranium (waste issued from enrichment plants), with natural Thorium being the best choice. No enriched fuel is needed. So this type of reactor could constitute a source of energy for several thousands of years, because it is about 90 more efficient that a standard fission reactor, such as a PWR or a Candu one, by extracting almost completely the energy from the fertile materials U238 and Th232. For about the fission part, the PWR technology is mature. For about the fusion part, it is based on reasonable hypotheses done on present Stellarators projects. The working of this reactor is continuous, 24 hours a day. In this paper, it will be targeted a reactor able to provide a net electric power of about 1400 MWe, as a big fission power plant.
Source: Figshare
Author: LINDECKER, Patrick
Language: English
Subfield: Aerospace Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6939726503
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