Submission + - SPAM: Beyond ITER – next steps in fusion power
planning and even engineering studies have already begun on ITER’s successor. This will be called DEMO, and while ITER will sustain a burning plasma, DEMO is planned to be the first real nuclear fusion power station, expected to supply electricity to a grid.
The in-depth article also clarifies a lot of misconceptions of the purpose of ITER as a prototype for the technology involved. For example, there are multiple possible strategies for the cooling blanket of the reactor:
Once again, this technology will be trialled in ITER. The blanket in the Cadarache reactor will be essentially non-functional, serving primarily as armour to protect the steel walls of the vacuum vessel. However, modules will be emplaced in the armour blanket incorporating four prospective lithium-to-tritium breeder mechanisms. The most successful of these will be used in the blanket modules that will line the entire DEMO torus.
The article also covers the predecessor JET (Joint European Torus) and how technology for ITER has been prototyped there and at other facilities.