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Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Taking shape: Fusion energy ecosystems built with public-private partnerships
It’s possible to describe fusion in simple terms: heat and squeeze small atoms to get abundant clean energy. But there’s nothing simple about getting fusion ready for the grid.
Private developers, national lab and university researchers, suppliers, and end users working toward that goal are developing a range of complex technologies to reach fusion temperatures and pressures, confounded by science and technology gaps linked to plasma behavior; materials, diagnostics, and electronics for extreme environments; fuel cycle sustainability; and economics.
Marie Grosse, Lyonel Guillot, Benoît Reneaume, Emmanuel Fleury, Cyril Hermerel, Alexandre Choux, Laurent Jeannot, Isabelle Geoffray, Alexis Faivre, Olivier Breton, Johan Andre, Remy Collier, Olivier Legaie
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 59 | Number 1 | January 2011 | Pages 205-215
Technical Paper | Nineteenth Target Fabrication Meeting | doi.org/10.13182/FST59-205
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Low density foams (in this work, foam density refers to apparent density) are materials of interest for fusion experiments. Low density poly(4-methyl-1-pentene) (commercial name TPX) foams have been produced for [approximately]30 years. TPX foams have been shown to have densities as low as 3 mgcm-3, which is very close to air density (1.2 mgcm-3). Around this density foams are very light and highly fragile. Their fabrication is thus a real technological challenge.However, shrinking always appears in ranges ranking from 25% to almost 200%. As a result, the apparent density of the final foam never matches the expected value given by the precursor solution concentration. Besides, even if the mold dimensions are precisely known, shrinkage is never linear, and foams have to be machined for precise density measurement.In our work we present a fabrication process for TPX foams and discuss machining and density measuring issues.Particularly, we have found that there are volume and weight limits for a determination of density within the range of 3% uncertainty. This raises the question whether density should rather be determined directly on millimeter-sized targets or should be performed on a bigger scale sample prepared from the same batch.