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NRC looks to leverage previous approvals for large LWRs
During this time of resurging interest in nuclear power, many conversations have centered on one fundamental problem: Electricity is needed now, but nuclear projects (in recent decades) have taken many years to get permitted and built.
In the past few years, a bevy of new strategies have been pursued to fix this problem. Workforce programs that seek to laterally transition skilled people from other industries, plans to reuse the transmission infrastructure at shuttered coal sites, efforts to restart plants like Palisades or Duane Arnold, new reactor designs that build on the legacy of research done in the early days of atomic power—all of these plans share a common throughline: leveraging work already done instead of starting over from square one to get new plants designed and built.
F. Romanelli, A. Coletti, C. Gormezano, F. Lucci, A. Pizzuto, G. B. Righetti, The FTU Group, The ECRH Group
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 45 | Number 3 | May 2004 | Pages 483-511
Technical Paper | Frascati Tokamak Upgrade (FTU) | doi.org/10.13182/FST04-A526
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A conceptual study is presented for a substantial upgrade of the Frascati Tokamak Upgrade (FTU) up to B = 8 T, I = 6 MA, and R [approximately equal to] 1.3 m to study burning plasma (BP) issues in deuterium plasmas operating up to an equivalent DT gain close to Q = 2 in the ELMy H-mode and to Q = 5 with an internal transport barrier (ITB). The effect of alpha particles is simulated by ~1 MeV fast 3He minority heating produced by ion cyclotron resonance heating (20 MW). Thanks to the high-density values ([approximately equal to]4 × 1020 m-3), the FT3 plasmas are characterized by short electron-ion equipartition time (60 ms in the ELMy H-mode scenario) and slowing-down time (44 ms), with respect to the energy confinement time of ~340 ms, a feature characteristic of BP experiments but not always satisfied with present tokamak devices. Advanced scenarios at 5 T with fully noninductive current drive can be investigated with a steady-state current density profile achieved in <5 s. The aim of FT3 is to prepare ITER operation and to provide a test bed for the development of the ITER auxiliary system and diagnostics. Elements of the scientific program are as follows: the investigation of energetic particle collective effects, optimization of H-mode scenarios, development of improved H-mode scenarios and scenarios with ITBs, magnetohydrodynamic and transport studies in ITER-relevant conditions, and study of edge plasma dynamics. FT3 can use all the existing facilities available in Frascati and could be constructed in ~5 yr.
