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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
IAEA again raises global nuclear power projections
Noting recent momentum behind nuclear power, the International Atomic Energy Agency has revised up its projections for the expansion of nuclear power, estimating that global nuclear operational capacity will more than double by 2050—reaching 2.6 times the 2024 level—with small modular reactors expected to play a pivotal role in this high-case scenario.
IAEA director general Rafael Mariano Grossi announced the new projections, contained in the annual report Energy, Electricity, and Nuclear Power Estimates for the Period up to 2050 at the 69th IAEA General Conference in Vienna.
In the report’s high-case scenario, nuclear electrical generating capacity is projected to increase to from 377 GW at the end of 2024 to 992 GW by 2050. In a low-case scenario, capacity rises 50 percent, compared with 2024, to 561 GW. SMRs are projected to account for 24 percent of the new capacity added in the high case and for 5 percent in the low case.
P. A. Politzer
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 48 | Number 2 | October 2005 | Pages 1170-1177
Technical Paper | DIII-D Tokamak - Radio-Frequency Heating and Current Drive | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A1069
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Noninductive current drive is an essential part of the implementation of the DIII-D Advanced Tokamak program. For an efficient steady-state tokamak reactor, the plasma must provide close to 100% bootstrap fraction (fbs). For noninductive operation of DIII-D, current drive by injection of energetic neutral beams [neutral beam current drive (NBCD)] is also important. DIII-D experiments have reached ~80% bootstrap current in stationary discharges without inductive current drive. The remaining current is ~20% NBCD. This is achieved at N [approximately equal to] p > 3, but at relatively high q95 (~10). In lower q95 Advanced Tokamak plasmas, fbs ~ 0.6 has been reached in essentially noninductive plasmas. The phenomenology of high p and N plasmas without current control is being studied. These plasmas display a relaxation oscillation involving repetitive formation and collapse of an internal transport barrier. The frequency and severity of these events increase with increasing , limiting the achievable average and causing modulation of the total current as well as the pressure. Modeling of both bootstrap and NBCD currents is based on neoclassical theory. Measurements of the total bootstrap and NBCD current agree with calculations. A recent experiment based on the evolution of the transient voltage profile after an L-H transition shows that the more recent bootstrap current models accurately describe the plasma behavior. The profiles and the parametric dependences of the local neutral beam-driven current density have not yet been compared with theory.
