Economic assessment of Tokamak fusion reactor plants

As the R&D of nuclear fusion technology makes steady progress, it becomes important to examine with what perspective and toward what direction further steps should be taken. This paper discusses the prospect of commercial nuclear fusion power reactors principally from the viewpoint of electric utilities, namely its potential users. Based upon conceptual designs of pure fusion reactors and fusion fission hybrid reactors, generation costs (cost of electricity) of the reactors are evaluated. Two different approaches are employed in the design because much uncertainty still remains in the future characteristics of fusion power reactors. The generation costs for the above two approaches show a fair similarity. The evaluated costs of the hybrid reactors are significantly lower than those of the pure fusion reactors.