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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
3D Printing Possibilities: Additive Manufacturing Impact Limiters for Transportation Casks
With the significant advances in additive manufacturing (AM), otherwise known as 3D printing, Orano Federal Services and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte recently re-examined the capabilities to print impact limiters for transportation casks used to ship spent nuclear fuel. Impact limiters protect transportation casks (sometimes also referred to as transportation overpacks) and their contents during an accident. Impact limiter designs must withstand testing based on a certain significance level of hypothetical accidents, including drops, crushing, fires, and immersion in water.
S. Sharafat, A. Mills, D. Youchison, R. Nygren, B. Williams, N. Ghoniem
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 52 | Number 3 | October 2007 | Pages 559-565
Technical Paper | The Technology of Fusion Energy - High Heat Flux Components | doi.org/10.13182/FST07-15
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A new class of helium-cooled high heat-flux plasma facing heat exchanger (HX) concept is presented. These unique "Foam-In-Tube" HX concepts are composed of a thin tungsten shell integrally bonded to an open-cell tungsten foam core. High heat flux tests show maximum heat loads of 22.4 MW/m2 using 4 MPa helium at a flow rate of 27 g/s. Based on these impressive performance results, a unique and scalable heat exchanger channel with ultra-low pressure drop through the porous foam is presented. The primary advantage of the new concept is that pressure drop through the porous media and structure temperatures are nearly independent of HX tube length. The concept is modular in design and can be combined to meet divertor size requirements. From a manufacturing and reliability point of view, the advantage of the proposed concept is that it minimizes the need for joining to other functional materials.