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A year in orbit: ISS deployment tests radiation detectors for future space missions
The predawn darkness on a cool Florida night was shattered by the ignition of nine Merlin engines on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The thrust of the engines shook the ground miles away. From a distance, the rocket appeared to slowly rise above the horizon. For the cargo onboard, the launch was anything but gentle, as the ignition of liquid oxygen generated more than 1.5 million pounds of force. After the rocket had been out of sight for several minutes, the booster dramatically returned to Earth with several sonic booms in a captivating show of engineering designed to make space travel less expensive and more sustainable.
B. Misra, D. L. Smith, R. C. Burk, G. D. Morgan
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 4 | Number 2 | September 1983 | Pages 1061-1066
Blanket and First Wall Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST83-A22998
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Liquid lithium-lead eutectic alloy (17 at−% Li-83 at−% Pb, referred to herein as Li-Pb) is currently being considered as a candidate breeding material for fusion reactors. Some important considerations in the design of a Li-Pb blanket are compatibility with the structure, tritium containment and recovery, and safety. Additional design complexities arise because of the high density of Li-Pb, the relatively high melting temperature (235°C), and the high tritium overpressure associated with this alloy. In this study, the Li-Pb eutectic was considered both as the breeder and as the coolant. Thermal hydraulic and stress analyses were conducted to assess the technical feasibility of using Li-Pb as the breeder and coolant based on DEMO reactor conditions. The results of the thermo-mechanical analyses showed that the elongated cylindrical blanket modules made from either HT-9 or vanadium alloy offer a viable first wall/blanket design concept.