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Can hydrogen be the transportation fuel in an otherwise nuclear economy?
Let’s face it: The global economy should be powered primarily by nuclear power. And it probably will by the end of this century, with a still-significant assist from renewables and hydro. Once nuclear systems are dominant, the costs come down to where gas is now; and when carbon emissions are reduced to a small portion of their present state, it will become obvious that most other sources are only good in niche settings. I mean, why use small modular reactors to load-follow when they can just produce that power instead of buffering it?
J.M. Mack, D.A. Baker, S.E. Caldwell, R.E. Chrien, B.H. Failor, S.R. Goldman, A.A. Hauer, R.G. Hockaday, J.A. Oertel, W.K. Thorn, R.G. Watt, C.S. Young
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 26 | Number 3 | November 1994 | Pages 819-828
National Ignition Facility | Proceedings of the Eleventh Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy New Orleans, Louisiana June 19-23, 1994 | doi.org/10.13182/FST94-A40256
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The National Ignition Facility (NIF) will have a large suite of sophisticated target diagnostics. This will allow thoroughly diagnosed experiments to be performed both at the ignition and pre-ignition levels. As part of the national effort Los Alamos National Laboratory will design, construct and implement a number of diagnostics for the NIF. This paper describes Los Alamos contributions to the “phase 1” diagnostics. Phase 1 represents the most fundamental and basic measurement systems that will form the core for most work on the NIF. The Los Alamos effort falls into four categories: moderate to hard X-ray time-resolved imaging; neutron spectroscopy-primarily with neutron time of flight devices; burn diagnostics utilizing gamma ray measurements; and testing measurement concepts (e.g., some soft X-ray ideas) on the TRIDENT laser system at Los Alamos. Because of the large blast, debris and radiation environment, the design of high resolution X-ray imaging systems present significant challenges. Systems with close target proximity require special protection and methods for such protection are described. The system design specifications based on expected target performance parameters are also described. Diagnosis of nuclear yield and burn will be essential to the NIF operation. Nuclear reaction diagnosis utilizing both neutron and gamma ray detection is discussed. The Los Alamos TRIDENT laser system will be used extensively for the development of new measurement concepts and diagnostic instrumentation. Some of its potential roles in the development of diagnostics for NIF are given.