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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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June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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Lightbridge announces first U-Zr fuel rod samples extruded at INL
Lightbridge Corporation announced today that it has reached “a critical milestone” in the development of its extruded solid fuel technology. Coupon samples using an alloy of zirconium and depleted uranium—not the high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) that Lightbridge plans to use to manufacture its fuel for the commercial market—were extruded at Idaho National Laboratory’s Materials and Fuels Complex.
R. F. Post et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 47 | Number 1 | January 2005 | Pages 49-58
Technical Paper | Open Magnetic Systems for Plasma Confinement | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A607
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The "Kinetic Stabilizer" has been proposed as a means of MHD stabilizing an axisymmetric tandem mirror system. The K-S concept is based on theoretical studies by Ryutov, confirmed experimentally in the Gas Dynamic Trap experiment in Novosibirsk. In the K-S beams of ions are directed into the end of an "expander" region outside the outer mirror of a tandem mirror. These ions, slowed, stagnated, and reflected as they move up the magnetic gradient, produce a low-density stabilizing plasma.At the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory we have been conducting theoretical and computational studies of the K-S Tandem Mirror. These studies have employed a low-beta code written especially to analyze the beam injection/stabilization process,and a new code SYMTRAN (by Hua and Fowler)that solves the coupled radial and axial particle and energy transport in a K-S T-M. Also, a "legacy"MHD stability code, FLORA, has been upgraded and employed to benchmark the injection/stabilization code and to extend its results to high beta values.The FLORA code studies so far have confirmed the effectiveness of the K-S in stabilizing high-beta (40%) plasmas with stabilizer plasmas the peak pressures of which are several orders of magnitude smaller than those of the confined plasma.Also the SYMTRAN code has shown D-T plasma ignition from alpha particle energy deposition in T-M regimes with strong end plugging.Our studies have confirmed the viability of the K-S T-M concept with respect to MHD stability and radial and axial confinement. We are continuing these studies in order to optimize the parameters and to examine means for the stabilization of possible residual instability modes, such as drift modes and "trapped-particle" modes. These modes may in principle be controlled by tailoring the stabilizer plasma distribution and/or the radial potential distribution.In the paper the results to date of our studies are summarized and projected to scope out possible fusion-power versions of the K-S T-M