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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.
D. J. Den Hartog et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 59 | Number 1 | January 2011 | Pages 124-127
doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A11589
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Internal time-resolved measurement of magnetic field and electron temperature in low-field ( 1 T) plasmas is a difficult diagnostic challenge. To meet this diagnostic challenge in the Madison Symmetric Torus reversed-field pinch, two techniques are being developed: 1) spectral motional Stark effect (MSE) and 2) Fast Thomson scattering. For spectral MSE, the entire Stark-split H spectrum emitted by hydrogen neutral beam atoms is recorded and analyzed using a newly refined atomic emission model. A new analysis scheme has been developed to infer both the polarization direction and the magnitude of Stark splitting, from which both the direction and magnitude of the local magnetic field can be derived. For Fast Thomson scattering, two standard commercial flashlamp-pumped Nd:YAG lasers have been upgraded to “pulse-burst” capability. Each laser produces a burst of up to fifteen pulses at repetition rates 1–12.5 kHz, thus enabling recording of the dynamic evolution of the electron temperature profile and electron temperature fluctuations. To further these capabilities, a custom pulse-burst laser system is now being commissioned. This new laser is designed to produce a burst of laser pulses at repetition frequencies 5–250 kHz.