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Fusion Science and Technology
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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
Robert T. McGrath, C. Christopher Klepper, Taner Uckan, Peter K. Mioduszewski
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 14 | Number 2 | September 1988 | Pages 339-353
Technical Paper | Divertor/Limiter System | doi.org/10.13182/FST88-A20266
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The relative positioning of the limiter modules on Tore Supra is investigated with the objective of optimizing the overall performance of the system and the operational flexibility of the experiment. Limiter system performance is optimized by simultaneously maximizing the power handling and particle exhaust capabilities. This must be accomplished for the entire range of edge q values anticipated on Tore Supra. In addition, it is desirable to independently maximize power handling, to allow operation at very high levels of plasma auxiliary heating, or particle exhaust, to allow operation at high pellet injection fueling rates. The relative merit of one configuration with respect to another is determined using a diffusion model for charged-particle radial transport coupled with a detailed three-dimensional mapping of the magnetic field structure in the edge plasma region. To implement the model, assumptions must be made about the edge plasma conditions including the rate of charged-particle diffusion. These assumptions affect the absolute values of the power handling and particle exhaust capabilities of the system but do not affect the merit of one configuration relative to another. Working within the constraints imposed by the availability of ports on Tore Supra, the best limiter configuration for a system of seven modular limiters is identified. The performance to be expected for this optimized configuration for various modes of Tore Supra operation is reported. Very long flux tubes must be avoided if the limiter system is to operate near its full design capacity of 8.0 MW. For the assumed edge conditions, Böhm diffusion with a plasma temperature of 150 eV at the last closed flux surf ace, the configuration identified can exhaust between 17 and 21 Torr · ℓ/s while removing 5 to 8 MW of power incident on the limiter surfaces. Operational modes that pump as much as 26 Torr · ℓ/s are also possible if incident power levels are reduced to 4.0 MW. Operation with large amounts of auxiliary heating, in excess of 15 MW, is also possible by power sharing with the actively cooled inner bumper limiter. In this situation, particle pumping rates may be as low as 9 Torr · ℓ/s.
