“PROCESS”: A systems code for fusion power plants - Part 2: Engineering

An example of a pulsed power plant is given. The need for a large central solenoid to induce most of the plasma current, and physics assumptions that are conservative compared to some other studies, result in a large machine, with a cryostat 36 m in diameter. Multiple constraints, working together, restrict the parameter space of the optimised model. For example, even when the ratio of operating current to critical current in the TF coils is increased by a factor of five, the total coil cross-section decreases only a little, because of the need for copper stabiliser, insulation, and structural support. The result is that the plasma major radius hardly changes. It is these surprising results that justify the development of systems codes.