#117 Announcing UTRC, the Universal Tokamak Reactor Calculator

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By Steven B. Krivit
April 24, 2022

Analyzing power claims of past and future tokamak fusion reactors is not easy. One of the reasons is that fusion researchers often make assumptions in their calculations and don’t state them in their papers. Sometimes, they don’t disclose the power needed to operate the reactors. The term for this value is called “balance of plant.”

Thus, I created UTRC, the Universal Tokamak Reactor Calculator. This approximation tool should be considered as a back-of-the-envelope calculator. It does not attempt to account for granular differences, details, and variables that exist among reactor designs. Given three basic numbers for a reactor, you can quickly and easily calculate the theoretical net electrical power that the reactor should produce and its associated Q values.

Click here to go to the calculator.