The Final Version of Minimars—An Engineering View

A two year study to describe an attractive tandem mirror reactor has recently been completed. The reactor, called MINIMARS, has met all its mission goals. For instance, it will produce 600 MW of net electrical power at a cost of less than 50 mill/kWh. It has a mass utilization of 100 kW/tonne. In the event of a major accident, the MINIMARS reactor will minimize the risk of a major loss in investment and will be passively safe. The first year of the study emphasized innovative concepts and trade studies that led to good cost vs performance. The first year results were summarized in Refs. 1 and 2. The second year of the study developed the proposed concepts into an integrated point design. This paper presents a description of the MINIMARS design and its related cost. The engineering integration of this machine has been a principal activity at the Fusion Engineering Design Center (FEDC).