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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.
Abraham J. Fetterman, Nathaniel J. Fisch
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 59 | Number 1 | January 2011 | Pages 136-139
doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A11592
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Centrifugal mirrors use supersonic rotation to provide axial confinement and enhanced stability. Usually the rotation is produced using electrodes, but these electrodes have limited the rotation to the Alfven critical ionization velocity, which is too slow to be useful for fusion. Instead, the rotation could be produced using radio frequency waves. A fixed azimuthal ripple is a simple and efficient wave that could produce rotation by harnessing alpha particle energy. This is an extension of the alpha channeling effect. The alpha particle power and efficiency in a simulated devices is sufficient to produce rotation without external energy input. By eliminating the need for electrodes, this opens new opportunities for centrifugal traps.