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Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Fusion Science and Technology
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Glass strategy: Hanford’s enhanced waste glass program
The mission of the Department of Energy’s Office of River Protection (ORP) is to complete the safe cleanup of waste resulting from decades of nuclear weapons development. One of the most technologically challenging responsibilities is the safe disposition of approximately 56 million gallons of radioactive waste historically stored in 177 tanks at the Hanford Site in Washington state.
ORP has a clear incentive to reduce the overall mission duration and cost. One pathway is to develop and deploy innovative technical solutions that can advance baseline flow sheets toward higher efficiency operations while reducing identified risks without compromising safety. Vitrification is the baseline process that will convert both high-level and low-level radioactive waste at Hanford into a stable glass waste form for long-term storage and disposal.
Although vitrification is a mature technology, there are key areas where technology can further reduce operational risks, advance baseline processes to maximize waste throughput, and provide the underpinning to enhance operational flexibility; all steps in reducing mission duration and cost.
Weiping Shen, Peng Li, Chulei Zhou, Shiliang Xu, Shuming Wang
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 66 | Number 1 | July-August 2014 | Pages 260-265
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST13-726
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A monoblock mockup for a divertor uses too much tungsten of high gravity. Segmentation of tungsten armor in the monoblock or macrobrush mockups can reduce excess thermal stress caused by the about 3.5 times difference of thermal expansion coefficient between CuCrZr and tungsten, but it is not enough to avoid cracking of the welding interface between tungsten and CuCrZr because of initial semibrittlement and embrittlement of the tungsten armor in service. In this paper, an interlayer of diamond/Cu composite was inserted between tungsten and CuCrZr to reduce the interfacial stress of welded dissimilar materials. Armor of laminated or macrobrush tungsten was designed to decrease the stress concentration of the welding interface. A Cu foil was inserted between the tungsten armor and the diamond/Cu composite to increase welding strength. The plasma-facing mockups made of W-diamond/Cu-CuCrZr or W-diamond/Cu-12Cr RAFM were designed after optimizing by thermal analysis using finite element method and were prepared by a cubic press for producing diamond. The welding properties and microstructures of the dissimilar materials were investigated. Several mockups were connected to prepare a plasma-facing component by penetrating a CuCrZr tube into several CuCrZr heat sinks. The thermal expansion coefficient of the diamond/Cu interlayer is near that of tungsten, and its thermal conductivity is higher than that of CuCrZr. Plastic copper foils can relax thermal stress to avoid cracking in the welding interface. So, this water-cooled plasma-facing component should be better to dissipate the high heat flux of the divertor in fusion reactors.