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Going Nuclear: Notes from the officially unofficial book tour
I work in the analytical labs at one of Europe’s oldest and largest nuclear sites: Sellafield, in northwestern England. I spend my days at the fume hood front, pipette in one hand and radiation probe in the other (and dosimeter pinned to my chest, of course). Outside the lab, I have a second job: I moonlight as a writer and public speaker. My new popular science book—Going Nuclear: How the Atom Will Save the World—came out last summer, and it feels like my life has been running at full power ever since.
Alice Ying, Haibo Liu, Mohamed Abdou
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 64 | Number 2 | August 2013 | Pages 303-308
Divertor and High-Heat-Flux Components | Proceedings of the Twentieth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (TOFE-2012) (Part 1), Nashville, Tennessee, August 27-31, 2012 | doi.org/10.13182/FST64-303
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Available data and mathematical formulations concerning tritium transport in the FW/Divertor with tungsten and beryllium as plasma facing materials were implemented in the commercial code COMSOL Multiphysics. The goal is to develop a CAD-based multiphysics modeling capability so that FW/Divertor temperature and geometric features can be readily taken into consideration while tritium permeation to the primary coolant in a prototypical PFC can be more realistically addressed. This development began with the simulation of ion implantation experiments, validated against existing laboratory experimental results. Analysis shows that with ITER FW where Be is used as the plasma facing material, the low operating temperature, erosion, and the dwell time greatly hinder tritium bulk diffusion, permeation, and inventory accumulation. However, under DEMO high-temperature operating conditions, tritium can quickly diffuse through tungsten to structural material and reach a steady state inventory after a relatively short time. Additionally, its permeation to the coolant can be reduced when the Soret effect is considered. The findings and challenges of developing a 3-D predictive capability for tritium transport in a FW/Divertor PFC are discussed.