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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.
Nathaniel J. Fisch (17R01)
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 51 | Number 2 | February 2007 | Pages 1-6
Technical Paper | Open Magnetic Systems for Plasma Confinement | doi.org/10.13182/FST07-A1303
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The alpha channeling effect in tokamaks exploits the higher population of high-energy alpha particles in the tokamak interior compared to that of low-energy alpha particles at the periphery. Because of the population inversion, it is possible to inject waves that diffuse resonant particles along diffusion paths connecting these regions, so that hot alpha particles diffuse to the periphery and cool at the same time. This effect has been suggested as a way of achieving considerably higher performance in tokamak fusion reactors, and similar possibilities might be expected in mirror reactors.