Integrated design of a pulsed, modular, negative triangularity pilot plant concept

We present initial designs for MANTA (Modular Adjustable Negative-Triangularity ARC), a fully-integrated pulsed reactor design that exceeds the pilot plant criteria described in the 2021 NASEM report [1]: more than 50 MWe net electricity for 3 hours, a positive tritium breeding ratio, an electric gain factor Qelectric > 1, an overnight cost of less than 5 billion US dollars, and successful operation over several environmental cycles. MANTA achieves this by utilizing a negative triangularity (NT) core to solve the power-handling issues facing existing reactor designs. The full plasma volume is self-consistently modeled by coupling core gyrokinetic codes to UEDGE simulations of the radiative divertor solution. The edge remains L-mode-like even at high heating but can produce fusion power on the scale of a similarly sized H-mode plasma. MANTA is modular, featuring a jointed toroidal field coil set made with REBCO superconductors and an over-sized cryosystem that both allow for rapid maintenance cycles. We also implement a liquid immersion FLiBe blanket which allows for rapid changes in the vacuum vessel geometry and net positive tritium breeding.

[1] National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, “Bringing Fusion to the U.S. Grid,” The National Academies Press (2021)