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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. Yamauchi, T. Nishitani, S. Nishio, J. Hori, H. Kawasaki
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 52 | Number 4 | November 2007 | Pages 781-785
Technical Paper | Nuclear Analysis and Experiments | doi.org/10.13182/FST07-A1585
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Low activation material is one of the important factors for constructing high power fusion reactors in future. Unexpected activation, however, may be produced through sequential reactions due to charged particles created by primary neutron reactions. In the present work, the effect of the sequential activation reaction was studied for candidate low activation materials of a fusion demo-reactor. The calculations were conducted by the ACT4 code developed in JAEA for the activation analysis of fusion reactor designs and revised for dealing with the sequential activation reactions. The results say that the real dose rate around vanadium alloy becomes larger after the cooling for 3 years by considering the reaction. Although metal hydrate is regarded as an excellent low activation shield material, the reactions due to recoil protons are influential and the dose rate around vanadium hydrate is several orders of magnitude larger than the value calculated without the sequential process after 2 weeks cooling. In case of liquid breeders, the effect of sequential reactions is popularly observed and it affects the breeder reprocessing and the shield design of circulation loop.