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Launching into tomorrow: NRIC guides new era of research and deployment
In June 2025, the Department of Energy announced the Reactor Pilot Program, an authorization pathway that allowed reactor developers to partner with the DOE to get first-of-a-kind (FOAK) reactors built and tested. Soon after, the DOE rolled out a complementary Fuel Line Pilot Program, which aimed to fast-track fuel projects. In all, 20 projects were accepted into the new programs.
S. K. Combs et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 64 | Number 3 | September 2013 | Pages 513-520
Fusion Technologies: Heating and Fueling | Proceedings of the Twentieth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (TOFE-2012) (Part 2) Nashville, Tennessee, August 27-31, 2012 | doi.org/10.13182/FST13-A19144
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A compact pellet injector has been built/tested at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) for the TJ-II stellarator. The design is an upgraded version of that used for the ORNL injector installed on the Madison Symmetric Torus (MST). It is a four-barrel system equipped with a cryogenic refrigerator for in situ hydrogen pellet formation, a propellant valve system for pellet acceleration (speeds ~1000 m/s), pellet diagnostics, and an injection line. On TJ-II, it will be used as an active diagnostic and for fueling. To accommodate the plasma experiments planned for TJ-II, pellet sizes significantly smaller than those used for the MST application are required. The system has been initially equipped with four pellet sizes, with the gun barrel bores ranging between 0.4 and 1.0 mm. The most challenging technical issue is achieving reliable operation with the smallest pellet size. The system is described, highlighting the new features added since the original MST injector was constructed. Results from laboratory testing are presented and discussed, including the range of pellet sizes and speeds that will be available for initial experiments on TJ-II and the expected reliability of delivering intact pellets to the plasmas.