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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.
D. D. Ryutov, P. B. Parks
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 54 | Number 4 | November 2008 | Pages 978-988
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST08-A1913
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Dynamics of the compression of a magnetized plasma target by a heavy liner made of partially ionized high-Z material is discussed. A soft-landing (shockless) mode of the liner deceleration is analyzed. Conclusion is drawn that such mode is possible for the liners whose thickness at the time of the first contact with the target is smaller than ~10% of the initial (uncompressed) target radius. A combination of the plasma liner with one or two glide cones allows for direct access to the area near the center of the reactor chamber. One can then generate a plasma target inside the plasma liner at the optimum time. The other advantage of the glide cones is that they can be used to deliver additional fuel to the center of the target near the point of maximum compression and thereby increase the fusion yield.