Fusion Electric Power Generation

The potential to generate electric power from fusion has been the principal business and political justification for fusion research. EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute) had a $4M/year fusion energy effort until the mid-1980s when it was cancelled. It generated a number of documents that help define the criteria that a fusion electric power plant must meet to be acceptable to an electric utility.

• "Criteria for Practical Fusion Power Systems: Report from the EPRI Fusion Panel" by Jack Kaslow (panel chair), Merwin Brown, Robert Hirsch, Ralph Izzo, John McCann, Dennis McCloud, Bill Muston, Art Peterson, Jr., Steve Rosen, Thomas Schneider, Peter Skrgic, and Bruce Snow; Journal of Fusion Energy, 1994, Volume 13, Nos. 2/3.

Changes in the marketplace, competing power sources, and environmental issues are also relevant factors:

• "External Factors Affecting Fusion Energy Development," by Stephen O. Dean, Journal of Fusion Energy, June 1999, Volume 18, Number 2.

Dr. Kulcinski suggests a number of short term commercial opportunities for fusion including the detection of explosives, production of medical isotopes, and the destruction of long-lived fission products:

• "Near Term Commercial Opportunities from Long Range Fusion Research," by Gerald Kulcinski, Fusion Technology, December 1996, Volume 30.

Dr. Krakowski provides a simplified top-level costing model to project the cost of electricity from various conceptual fusion power plants:

• "Simplified Fusion Power Plant Costing: A General Prognosis and Call for 'New Think'," by Robert Krakowski, Fusion Technology, March 1995, Volume 27.