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Swiss nuclear power and the case for long-term operation
Designed for 40 years but built to last far longer, Switzerland’s nuclear power plants have all entered long-term operation. Yet age alone says little about safety or performance. Through continuous upgrades, strict regulatory oversight, and extensive aging management, the country’s reactors are being prepared for decades of continued operation, in line with international practice.
Muthar R. Al-Ubaidi, James N. Anno
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 16 | Number 4 | December 1989 | Pages 464-468
Technical Paper | Special Section: Cold Fusion Technical Notes / Blanket Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST89-A29108
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Microspheres of lithium hydroxide (LiOH) were produced from in-flight solidification of droplets formed by the disintegration of an acoustically driven, mechanically vibrated cylindrical liquid jet of molten LiOH. The molten material at 470 to 480°C was fed through a 25-gauge (0.0267-cm bore diameter) nozzle, interiorly electroplated with silver, under ∼27.6-kPa (4-psig) pressure, and at a mechanical vibration frequency of 10 Hz. The resulting jet issued into a 5.5-cm-diam vertical glass drop tube entraining a 94.5 cm3/s (12 ft3/h) argon gas stream at 75°C. The 100-cm-long drop tube was sufficient to allow the droplets of molten LiOH resulting from jet disintegration to solidify in-flight without catastrophic thermal shock, being then collected as solid microspheres. These LiOH microspheres were then vacuum processed to lithium oxide (Li2O). Preliminary experiments resulted in microspheres with diameters varying from 120 to 185 µim, but with evidence of impurity contamination occurring during the initial stages of the process.