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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
F. Rancillac, H. Djerassi
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 14 | Number 2 | September 1988 | Pages 1014-1017
Containment, Control, and Maintenance of Tritium System | doi.org/10.13182/FST88-A25271
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The fusion reactors will be based on the Deuterium-Tritium reaction. Therefore, the tritium inventory will be rather high. It may be interesting to optimize the protection of these facilities. To this effect, an expert code (EXTRITO) has been prepared for optimizing the tritium transfers for the plant. The optimization is based on criteria such as the dose to the workers and the general public, and on a code optimizing the protection options (ventilation, containment barriers, process) surrounding the tritium circuit and economics. The ultimate criterion for choice is economics. This paper presents the EXTRITO code exclusively. The quantitative applications and extension to other radioactive products will be performed later for situations such as routine operations accidents and maintenance.
