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What’s the most difficult question you’ve been asked as a maintenance instructor?
Blye Widmar
"Where are the prints?!"
This was the final question in an onslaught of verbal feedback, comments, and critiques I received from my students back in 2019. I had two years of instructor experience and was teaching a class that had been meticulously rehearsed in preparation for an accreditation visit. I knew the training material well and transferred that knowledge effectively enough for all the students to pass the class. As we wrapped up, I asked the students how they felt about my first big system-level class, and they did not hold back.
“Why was the exam from memory when we don’t work from memory in the plant?” “Why didn’t we refer to the vendor documents?” “Why didn’t we practice more on the mock-up?” And so on.
H. Zhang, A. Ying, M. Abdou
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 64 | Number 3 | September 2013 | Pages 651-656
Test Blanket, Fuel Cycle, and Breeding | Proceedings of the Twentieth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (TOFE-2012) (Part 2) Nashville, Tennessee, August 27-31, 2012 | doi.org/10.13182/FST12-579
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A SiC-based flow channel insert (FCI) is used as an electrical and thermal insulator in the Dual Coolant Lead Lithium (DCLL) blanket. To reduce the stress of the FCI structural material, the pressure equalization slot (PES) is implemented in the FCI wall. However, the PES affects the tritium transfer behavior and loss rate. Therefore it is important to examine the tritium loss rate and ensure it remains below an allowable limit. In the present study, we analyze tritium transport and quantify the tritium loss rate in a front duct of the DCLL-type outboard blanket where PbLi moves poloidally. Three types of poloidal ducts have been considered: one without the PES, one with the PES in the wall parallel to the magnetic field and one with the PES in the wall perpendicular to the magnetic field. Tritium concentration fields are obtained by solving a fully 3-D problem with appropriate boundary conditions at various interfaces. Results show a high tritium concentration at the location of reversed flow when a PES was located in the wall parallel to the field. Furthermore, when any PES was introduced, the PES changed the velocity profiles and thus changed the tritium concentrations in the core and gaps, which increases the tritium losses from 1.244% to 1.413% under the calculation conditions.