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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
Norman Elliott, Cris W. Barnes, Steven H. Batha, Robert D. Day, Joyce Elliott, Peter Gobby, Veronica Gomez, Douglas Hatch, Nicholas E. Lanier, Glenn R. Magelssen, Ruben Manzanares, Ron Perea, Timothy Pierce, Gerald Rivera, David Sandoval, John M. Scott, Warren Steckle, David L. Tubbs, Stephen Rothman, Colin Horsfield, A. Michael Dunne, Kenneth W. Parker
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 41 | Number 3 | May 2002 | Pages 196-202
Technical Paper | Fourteenth Target Fabrication Specialists' Meeting | doi.org/10.13182/FST02-A17899
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The production of cylindrical targets involves numerous steps. These steps are shared in common with many other types of Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) targets but no other single target encompasses such a wide range of fabrication techniques. These targets consist of a large number of individual parts, virtually all fabricated from commercially purchased raw material. As an example, the polystyrene used is synthesized in house from purchased monomer material. This material must be polymerized, purified, characterized and put into solution before it is even first used in the making of a target. Because virtually every manufacturing and assembly process we currently use is involved in the production of these targets, this paper is written as a way documenting the methods used.