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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.
Philippe M. Bardet, Ryan P. Abbott, Chris Campen, James Franklin, Haihua Zhao, Per F. Peterson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 52 | Number 4 | November 2007 | Pages 932-937
Technical Paper | Inertial Fusion Technology: Drivers and Advanced Designs | doi.org/10.13182/FST07-A1613
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Z-Pinch IFE chamber fluid mechanics can be studied using simulant fluids such as water in reduced scale facilities. The use of porous liquid and solid blanket materials provides the key to mitigating blast effects from fusion reaction. The UCB Vacuum Hydraulics Experiment (VHEX) was recently upgraded with a large, annular inlet nozzle system to produce an annular porous liquid curtains to study Z-Pinch IFE chamber response. Explosives experiments in VHEX studied the response of the liquid structure to the detonation of high explosive C-4. The experiments demonstrated that the crushing of porous liquid structures is effective in transferring momentum uniformly into the blanket mass. No significant high-speed jetting or spall was observed exiting the shocked liquid structure. Independent measurement of the transient pressure history, coupled with high-speed video of the blanket response and final velocity, will provide the basis to validate gas dynamics and blanket response models.