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High-temperature plumbing and advanced reactors
The use of nuclear fission power and its role in impacting climate change is hotly debated. Fission advocates argue that short-term solutions would involve the rapid deployment of Gen III+ nuclear reactors, like Vogtle-3 and -4, while long-term climate change impact would rely on the creation and implementation of Gen IV reactors, “inherently safe” reactors that use passive laws of physics and chemistry rather than active controls such as valves and pumps to operate safely. While Gen IV reactors vary in many ways, one thing unites nearly all of them: the use of exotic, high-temperature coolants. These fluids, like molten salts and liquid metals, can enable reactor engineers to design much safer nuclear reactors—ultimately because the boiling point of each fluid is extremely high. Fluids that remain liquid over large temperature ranges can provide good heat transfer through many demanding conditions, all with minimal pressurization. Although the most apparent use for these fluids is advanced fission power, they have the potential to be applied to other power generation sources such as fusion, thermal storage, solar, or high-temperature process heat.1–3
Shinji Hasegawa, Kazuo Ogura, Takayuki Iwasaki, Kiyoyuki Yambe
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 63 | Number 1 | May 2013 | Pages 259-261
doi.org/10.13182/FST13-A16921
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Smith-Purcell (SP) radiations based on cylindrical surface wave are examined. Cylindrical surface waves are formed on metal cylinders having a periodically corrugated wall. Corrugation parameters are those used in K-band backward wave oscillators (BWOs). The corrugated metal cylinders are excited by an axially injected coaxial annular beam in a weakly relativistic region less than 100 kV. Cylindrical surface wave excitations due to BWO are observed at about 23 GHz. In addition, SP radiations are observed in the higher frequency regions up to about 90-100 GHz, which is about 4 times higher than the frequency of cylindrical surface wave.
