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60 Years of U: Perspectives on resources, demand, and the evolving role of nuclear energy
Recent years have seen growing global interest in nuclear energy and rising confidence in the sector. For the first time since the early 2000s, there is renewed optimism about the industry’s future. This change is driven by several major factors: geopolitical developments that highlight the need for secure energy supplies, a stronger focus on resilient energy systems, national commitments to decarbonization, and rising demand for clean and reliable electricity.
D. J. Alexander, J. C. Cooley, B. J. Cameron, L. B. Dauelsberg, R. M. Dickerson, R. E. Hackenberg, M. E. Mauro, A. Nobile, Jr., P. A. Papin, G. Rivera
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 49 | Number 4 | May 2006 | Pages 796-801
Technical Paper | Target Fabrication | doi.org/10.13182/FST06-A1203
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Work is underway at Los Alamos National Laboratory to fabricate machined-and-bonded target capsules of Be-6 wt% Cu for the National Ignition Facility. Significant progress has been made in producing material with the desired composition, purity, and homogeneity of composition, by arc melting. This material is thermomechanically processed by equal channel angular extrusion, to break down the coarse ascast structure and refine the grain size, to about 20 m. Machining with diamond tooling results in a significant improvement of the as-machined roughness, that also results in improved bond strengths. Bonding with a sputtered layer of Al can achieve high strengths with a bond 1.2 m thick, and thinner bonds are being investigated. Laser-drilled holes and fill-tube counterbores produced by electrodischarge machining appear to be feasible, but will require improvements in specimen positioning.