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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.
M. Inutake, A. Ando, K. Hattori, H. Tobari, T. Makita, H. Isobe (20R01)
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 51 | Number 2 | February 2007 | Pages 141-146
Technical Paper | Open Magnetic Systems for Plasma Confinement | doi.org/10.13182/FST07-A1335
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Dynamics of a fast-flowing plasma through a magnetic mirror field was investigated. A highly-ionized, high-density, He plasma produced by a quasi-steady MPD arcjet (MPDA) was injected into a magnetic mirror. In a uniform magnetic field region, ion acoustic Mach number (Mi) was almost unity, while in a diverging field region the Mach number increased up to 2-3. When the supersonic plasma flows into a converging field region, a shock-like structure was formed. The subsonic flow downstream of the shock was re-accelerated up to Mi of 2-3. The sonic condition (Mi=1) is satisfied at the magnetic mirror throat as in a conventional Laval nozzle. The adiabatic exponent of ions was evaluated by comparing measured spatial profiles with the prediction from 1D isentropic model.