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Fusion energy: Progress, partnerships, and the path to deployment
Over the past decade, fusion energy has moved decisively from scientific aspiration toward a credible pathway to a new energy technology. Thanks to long-term federal support, we have significantly advanced our fundamental understanding of plasma physics—the behavior of the superheated gases at the heart of fusion devices. This knowledge will enable the creation and control of fusion fuel under conditions required for future power plants. Our progress is exemplified by breakthroughs at the National Ignition Facility and the Joint European Torus.
M. J. Pattison, S. Smolentsev, R. Munipalli, M. A. Abdou
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 60 | Number 2 | August 2011 | Pages 809-813
Computational Tools, Modeling & Validation | Proceedings of the Nineteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (TOFE) (Part 2) | doi.org/10.13182/FST10-309
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In a Dual-Coolant Lead-Lithium (DCLL) blanket, tritium losses from the PbLi into cooling helium streams may occur when the liquid-metal breeder is moving in the poloidal ducts. Quantitative analysis of the mass transfer processes associated with the tritium transport in the breeder as well as tritium diffusion through the structural and functional materials is important for two main reasons. The first is that there can be a substantial cost in extracting tritium from helium. The second is that tritium can make its way from the helium stream into the environment. In the present study, we analyze tritium transport in the front section of the DCLL DEMO-type Outboard blanket, where PbLi moves poloidally in a rectangular duct with an insulating flow channel insert (FCI) in the presence of a strong plasma-confining magnetic field. This involves two steps, the computation of the flow field with an MHD code, followed by the solution of the mass transfer equation with a newly-developed transport code CATRYS. The analyses included a sensitivity study to investigate how uncertainties in the properties of the materials (diffusion coefficient, solubility constant) affect the results and to assess the effect of an impervious crystalline sealing layer on the FCI.