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Playing the “bad guy” to enhance next-generation safety
Sometimes, cops and robbers is more than just a kid’s game. At the Department of Energy’s national laboratories, researchers are channeling their inner saboteurs to discover vulnerabilities in next-generation nuclear reactors, making sure that they’re as safe as possible before they’re even constructed.
Takayoshi Norimatsu, Keiji Nagai, Tetsuji Takeda, Kunioki Mima, Tatsuhiko Yamanaka
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 43 | Number 3 | May 2003 | Pages 339-345
Technical Paper | Targets and Target Protection During Injection | doi.org/10.13182/FST03-A276
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To create a conceptual design of a tracking system of a target injected into a wet-walled, laser-fusion reactor, the influence of residual gas on the target trajectory is discussed based on a kinetic model, assuming all of the impinging molecules are adsorbed on the target surface. The model targets are a high-gain target for central ignition and a fast-ignition target with a cone as an optical guide for an additional heating laser. In the case of a fast-ignition target, tracking in the reactor might be skipped, depending on its condition, because of the heavy cone. Recent activities in fabrication of the fast-ignition target are briefly mentioned.