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2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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Fusion Science and Technology
October 2025
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Researchers use one-of-a-kind expertise and capabilities to test fuels of tomorrow
At the Idaho National Laboratory Hot Fuel Examination Facility, containment box operator Jake Maupin moves a manipulator arm into position around a pencil-thin nuclear fuel rod. He is preparing for a procedure that he and his colleagues have practiced repeatedly in anticipation of this moment in the hot cell.
W. T. Shmayda, D. R. Harding, V. A. Versteeg, C. Kingsley, M. Hallgren, S. J. Loucks
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 63 | Number 2 | March-April 2013 | Pages 87-94
Technical Paper | Selected papers from 20th Target Fabrication Meeting, May 20-24, 2012, Santa Fe, NM, Guest Editor: Robert C. Cook | doi.org/10.13182/FST13-A16325
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Debris with footprints smaller than 40 m2 on the outer and inner surfaces with heights of <10 m on outer surfaces and [approximately]1 m on inner surfaces is present on cryogenic targets used for inertial confinement fusion studies on OMEGA. These features form during the gas-filling and cooling processes used to produce cryogenic deuterium (D2) and deuterium-tritium (DT) targets. The amount of debris on the surface has varied since the inception of the Laboratory for Laser Energetics' (LLE's) cryogenic program. The cause of the contamination is attributed to the cryogenic equipment high-vacuum and cleanliness limitations and to the radiolytic degradation of polymers. Empirical observations and a review of the processing conditions suggest that 1 mol of condensable contaminant is sufficient to account for the debris observed on a typical cryogenic target. This translates into a 3-ppm impurity content in the DT fuel.This paper focuses on condensed gases as one source of debris. It is postulated that methane, water, and nitrogen accompany the DT fuel transfer when it is transferred from the uranium storage beds that hold the DT fuel to the permeation cell where the targets are filled.