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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
In transition: Commercializing fusion power
Commercial fusion power is closer than ever. There are now around 30 U.S. fusion companies, several of which claim to be on track to connect to the grid as early as the 2030s.
Tokamak and laser inertial confinement approaches benefit from decades of research at facilities such as the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and ITER, with alternative concepts including stellarator, magnetic mirror, and Z-pinch confinement also making notable progress as private and government funding for fusion increases.
Yosuke Abe, Tomoaki Suzudo, Shiro Jitsukawa, Tomohito Tsuru, Takashi Tsukada
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 62 | Number 1 | July-August 2012 | Pages 139-144
PFC and FW Materials Technology | Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Fusion Reactor Materials, Part A: Fusion Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST12-A14126
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
It is known that the presence of even a small amount of impurity in interstitial positions can, depending on temperature, have a drastic influence on the one-dimensional (1-D) motion of self-interstitial atom (SIA) loops, and thus, on the accumulation of radiation damage in materials. In this study, atomic-scale computer simulations based on a recently developed optimization technique have been performed to evaluate the binding energies of SIA loops with interstitial carbon, a vacancy-carbon (V-C) complex, and a vacancy as a function of loop size in -iron. While weak and strong attractive interactions are found when an interstitial carbon atom and a vacancy, respectively, are located on the perimeter of an SIA loop, the interactions for both quickly weaken approaching the loop center. In contrast, for a wide range of loop sizes, significantly higher binding energies are obtained between an SIA loop and a V-C complex located within the habit plane of the loop. A cluster dynamics model was developed by taking into account the trapping effects of V-C complexes on 1-D migrating SIA loops, and preliminary calculations were performed to demonstrate the validity of the assumed trapping mechanism through a comparison of the microstructural evolution with experimental data in neutron-irradiated -iron.