Overview of Australian activities of fusion neutronics

Abstract

The new status of the H-1NF Heliac Stellarator as a National Facility and the signed international Implementing Agreement on Collaboration in the Development of the Stellarator Concept should together be a significant encouragement for further fusion research in Australia. In this report the future of fusion research in Australia is discussed with special attention being paid to the importance of Stellarator Power Plant Studies and in particular stellarator fusion neutronics. The main differences between tokamak and stellarator neutronics analyses are identified, namely the neutron wall loading, geometrical modelling and total heating in in-vessel reactor components including toroidal field (TF) coils. An approach to stellarator (TF) coils heating calculations is discussed. This approach is a modification of a previously reported method of total heating calculations in tokamak TF coils. Due to the more complicated nature of stellarator neutronics analyses, simplified approaches to fusion neutronics already developed for tokamaks are expected to be even more important and widely used for designing a Conceptual Stellarator Power Plant. Show more