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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.
M. Stadermann, S. A. Letts, S. Bhandarkar
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 59 | Number 1 | January 2011 | Pages 58-62
Technical Paper | Nineteenth Target Fabrication Meeting | doi.org/10.13182/FST10-3714
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The centering of an ignition target capsule strongly depends on high-quality "tents" with closely matched mechanical properties. The relevant properties are tent stiffness and relaxation behavior. Tent stiffness is matched by choosing tents of equal thickness. Here, we describe recent advances in tent fabrication that have increased the quality and production rate of tents. The most significant improvement comes from the use of a meniscus coater to produce Formvar tents of high uniformity and with good control of tent thickness and good yield. Other improvements include a switch to silicon wafers as deposition substrate and standardized tent holders. The improvements have resulted in a sixfold increase of the production rate while increasing the yield by a factor of 2, despite tighter quality control.