ARIES-ACT1 Power Core Engineering

ARIES-ACT1 is an advanced tokamak power plant conceptual design that utilizes SiC composite structural material in the blanket and PbLi as the tritium breeder and coolant. This design concept represents an evolutionary step from ARIES-AT, which has guided tokamak research programs for the past decade. In conjunction with a helium Brayton power cycle, the high primary coolant outlet temperature allows thermal conversion efficiency of 58%. The self-cooled blanket and He-cooled W-alloy divertor provide the ability to survive relatively high power density with acceptable projected lifetime. In ARIES-ACT1, we attempted to add “robustness” to the design point without major sacrifices in performance. In this paper, we will discuss the main features of the power core and selected details in the design and analysis.