Research on Operation Mode of Energy Storage System for Thermonuclear Fusion Power Plant

Abstract

[Introduction] As a new form of nuclear energy utilization that is green and clean, nuclear fusion is regarded as the "ultimate energy" of mankind in the future and also as an inevitable route for China's energy development. In thermonuclear fusion power plants, China Fusion Engineering Test Reactors (CFETR) have periodic and pulse energy output, while turbine generator units operate stably and continuously. Therefore, an energy storage island is required between a nuclear island and a conventional island for energy storage buffering. To realize such a buffering function, a suitable operation mode needs to be selected for the energy storage system.[Method] The coupling and decoupling operation of the nuclear island and conventional island corresponded to different operation modes of the energy storage island. Based on the power output characteristics of CFETR, different operation mode schemes were analyzed and compared from aspects such as system configuration, equipment design and operation control. [Result] The results show that the decoupling operation mode of a nuclear island and conventional island is superior in terms of power generation efficiency, maturity of equipment design technology and operation control of generator units, so it is recommended to adopt the decoupling operation mode for the energy storage system in a thermonuclear fusion power plant. [Conclusion] Most of the decoupling operation mode schemes for the energy storage system adopt mature technologies, so they can be put into commercial applications on a large scale and provide support for the commercial design of thermonuclear fusion power plants.

Keywords

• nuclear fusion
• nuclear power plant
• energy storage
• operation mode
• conventional island