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Going Nuclear: Notes from the officially unofficial book tour
I work in the analytical labs at one of Europe’s oldest and largest nuclear sites: Sellafield, in northwestern England. I spend my days at the fume hood front, pipette in one hand and radiation probe in the other (and dosimeter pinned to my chest, of course). Outside the lab, I have a second job: I moonlight as a writer and public speaker. My new popular science book—Going Nuclear: How the Atom Will Save the World—came out last summer, and it feels like my life has been running at full power ever since.
S. K. Combs, J. W. Leachman, S. J. Meitner, L. R. Baylor, C. R. Foust, N. Commaux, T. C. Jernigan
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 60 | Number 2 | August 2011 | Pages 473-479
Plasma Engineering - Fueling and Diagnostics | Proceedings of the Nineteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (TOFE) (Part 2) | doi.org/10.13182/FST60-473
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A special single-shot pellet injection system that produces and accelerates large cryogenic pellets (~16mm diameter and composed of D2 or Ne) to relatively high speeds (>300 and 600 m/s, respectively) was previously developed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Subsequently, a similar system was installed on DIII-D and used successfully in disruption mitigation experiments. To circumvent some operational issues with injecting the large Ne pellets, a technique has been developed in which a relatively thin layer (0.1 to 1.0 mm) of D2 is frozen on the inner wall of the pipe-gun barrel, followed by filling the core with solid Ne.A fast solenoid valve operating with a light gas (H2 or He) at relatively high pressure (~70 bar) provides the force necessary to break away the dual-layer pellet and accelerate it. The technique and the initial laboratory tests are described, as well as the implementation and operational issues for fusion experiments.