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Playing the “bad guy” to enhance next-generation safety
Sometimes, cops and robbers is more than just a kid’s game. At the Department of Energy’s national laboratories, researchers are channeling their inner saboteurs to discover vulnerabilities in next-generation nuclear reactors, making sure that they’re as safe as possible before they’re even constructed.
R. W. Petzoldt, R. Gallix, D. T. Goodin, E. I. Valmianski, ARIES Team, W. S. Rickman
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 49 | Number 1 | January 2006 | Pages 56-61
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST06-A1085
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The hohlraum surrounds the fuel capsule in a heavy ion fusion (HIF) target. The hohlraum absorbs ion beam driver energy and emits this energy uniformly around the capsule in the form of X-rays. High-atomic-number materials are necessary in the walls of the hohlraum to contain the X-ray energy around the capsule during the implosion process. These high-atomic-number hohlraum materials affect many aspects of an HIF power plant operation. A systematic review of available information for all high-atomic-number elements was conducted to select candidate hohlraum materials. The effects of materials on target fabrication, energy cost, target gain, radioactivity, chemical toxicity, and potential for recycle were considered. Lead and tungsten are the lowest-cost acceptable materials in the primary coolant. The combination of lead and tungsten provide better target gain than either material alone. Seeding the primary coolant with submicron-sized tungsten particles can minimize tungsten growth in small openings in power plant components such as vacuum tritium disengagers. Concerns remain for possible tungsten particle agglomeration, settling, or erosion caused by tungsten particles. Tungsten could be replaced by several lanthanide elements if tungsten proves unacceptable.