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Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
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The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Glass strategy: Hanford’s enhanced waste glass program
The mission of the Department of Energy’s Office of River Protection (ORP) is to complete the safe cleanup of waste resulting from decades of nuclear weapons development. One of the most technologically challenging responsibilities is the safe disposition of approximately 56 million gallons of radioactive waste historically stored in 177 tanks at the Hanford Site in Washington state.
ORP has a clear incentive to reduce the overall mission duration and cost. One pathway is to develop and deploy innovative technical solutions that can advance baseline flow sheets toward higher efficiency operations while reducing identified risks without compromising safety. Vitrification is the baseline process that will convert both high-level and low-level radioactive waste at Hanford into a stable glass waste form for long-term storage and disposal.
Although vitrification is a mature technology, there are key areas where technology can further reduce operational risks, advance baseline processes to maximize waste throughput, and provide the underpinning to enhance operational flexibility; all steps in reducing mission duration and cost.
R. Gallix, P. Mijatovic
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 52 | Number 3 | October 2007 | Pages 464-467
Technical Paper | The Technology of Fusion Energy - Inertial Fusion Technology: Targets and Chambers | doi.org/10.13182/FST07-A1531
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In a central building of the power plant, the DT fuel is formed into a very smooth and uniform layer of ice at ~18 K inside a beryllium shell; placed in a cryogenic target assembly that provides support, cooling, and thermal insulation; and put into an evacuated replaceable transfer line (RTL) at room temperature (RT). The RTL is transported and inserted into one of the reactor chambers at 923 K and shot, releasing 3 GJ of nuclear fusion energy. The DT ice layer must stay below ~19.7 K to keep its geometric integrity until shot time.Detailed transient thermal analyses of the cryogenic target assembly in the RTL were performed. They showed that, with the original design, the DT ice would reach 24.6 K by shot time. With an improved design providing better thermal insulation of the target, the ice temperature would reach only 19.1 K, meeting the requirement for successful shots.This paper compares the thermal analysis results for both designs, which included conduction and radiation effects with temperature-dependent material properties.