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Second round of Launch Pad selections includes eight newcomers
The National Reactor Innovation Center at Idaho National Laboratory has announced 13 project selections across 12 companies for the Nuclear Energy Launch Pad, a Department of Energy–led program that integrates reactor and fuel facility authorization, testing, and deployment support for private nuclear developers.
The Launch Pad emerged from the Reactor Pilot Program and Fuel Line Pilot Program.
According to INL, projects selected include reactor development and nuclear fuel cycle advancements, including fabrication, enrichment, and conversion technologies.
H. W. Kugel, H. P. Eubank, T. A. Kozub, M. D. Williams, M. Ulrickson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 9 | Number 3 | May 1986 | Pages 401-407
Technical Paper | Plasma Heating System | doi.org/10.13182/FST86-A24728
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
During 2 yr of experimental operations, the Poloidal Divertor Experiment (PDX) inner wall neutral beam graphite armor provided protection for perpendicular heating injections into normal and disruptive plasmas as well as injections in the absence of plasma for special experiments, calibrations, and tests involving the optimization and development of the PDX neutral beam injection system. About 80 to 100 heating injections occurred per operating day, at a 360-s duty cycle, into plasmas of various densities, and typically ~5 to 50% of the injected neutral beam power was transmitted to the armor. More than 103 neutral beam pulses of 100- to 300-ms duration were injected in the absence of plasma at peak power densities of 1.5 to 3 kW/cm2, yielding peak surface temperatures of 950 to 1550°C. There was no significant impurity production attributable to beam heating of the armor, and no observed beam-induced, macroscopic surface damage. Many of the design constraints and performance issues encountered in this work are relevant to the design of larger fusion devices.