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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Strontium: Supply-and-demand success for the DOE’s Isotope Program
The Department of Energy’s Isotope Program (DOE IP) announced last week that it would end its “active standby” capability for strontium-82 production about two decades after beginning production of the isotope for cardiac diagnostic imaging. The DOE IP is celebrating commercialization of the Sr-82 supply chain as “a success story for both industry and the DOE IP.” Now that the Sr-82 market is commercially viable, the DOE IP and its National Isotope Development Center can “reassign those dedicated radioisotope production capacities to other mission needs”—including Sr-89.
Alexander B. Kukushkin, Valentin A. Rantsev-Kartinov, Arkady R. Terentiev
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 32 | Number 1 | August 1997 | Pages 83-93
Technical Paper | Plasma Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST97-A19881
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Experimental results are presented that verify the formerly predicted possibility of the formation of a closed, spheromak-like magnetic configuration (SLMC) by the natural magnetic field of a plasma focus discharge. The model is based on the self-generated transformation of a toroidal (i.e., azimuthal) magnetic field into a poloidal one. At the final stage of the discharge, the SLMC takes the form of a squeezed spheromak, which includes a combined Z-ϑ-pinch at its major axis, exhibiting a power density several orders of magnitude larger than that measured experimentally on a force-free flux-conserver-confined spheromak formed by helicity injection. The results suggest the possibility of further concentrating the plasma power density by means of compressing the SLMC-trapped plasma by the residual magnetic field of the plasma focus discharge. A qualitative model is given for the scenario of the SLMC-producing plasma focus discharge. Special emphasis is placed on the difference of this approach from conventional approaches to the role of magnetic field reconnection processes in plasma focus dynamics. The operational conditions necessary to stimulate SLMC formation in high-current gaseous discharge systems and the uses of SLMC-trapped plasmas are discussed briefly.