Liquid first walls for magnetic fusion energy

Liquids ({approximately}7 neutron mean free paths thick) with certain restrictions can probably be used in magnetic fusion designs between the burning plasma and the structural materials of the plant. If this works there are a number of profound advantages: lower the cost of electricity by more than 35%; remove the need to develop first wall materials saving over 4B$ in development costs; reduce the amount and kind of wastes generated in the plant; and permit a wider choice of materials. Evaporated liquid must be efficiently ionized in an edge plasma to prevent penetrating into the burning plasma and diminishing the burn rate. The fraction of evaporated material ionized is estimated to be 0.993 for Li, 0.98 for Flibe and 0.9999 for Li{sub 17}Pb{sub 83}. This ionized vapor would be swept along open field lines into a remote burial chamber. The most practical systems would be those with topological open field lines on the outer surface as is the case of a field reversed configuration (FRC), a Spheromak, a Z-pinch, or a mirror machine. In a Tokamak, including the Spherical Tokamak, the field lines outside the separatrix are restricted to a small volume inside the toroidal coil making for difficulties in introducing the liquid and removing the ionized vapor