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INL makes first fuel for Molten Chloride Reactor Experiment
Idaho National Laboratory has announced the creation of the first batch of enriched uranium chloride fuel salt for the Molten Chloride Reactor Experiment (MCRE). INL said that its fuel production team delivered the first fuel salt batch at the end of September, and it intends to produce four additional batches by March 2026. MCRE will require a total of 72–75 batches of fuel salt for the reactor to go critical.
Osamu Mitarai, Akira Hirose, Harvey M. Skarsgard
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 19 | Number 2 | March 1991 | Pages 234-250
Technical Paper | Plasma Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST91-A29362
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The concept of a generalized ignition contour map, showing , and T, is used to study the ignition criterion for a D-3He fusion reactor with plasma temperature and density profiles. Direct heating scenarios to the D-3He ignition regime without the help of deuterium-tritium burning are considered. The machine size and enhancement factor for the confinement time required to reach D-3He ignition can be simply determined by comparing the height of the operation path with Goldston L-mode scaling and the height of the generalized saddle point. A confinement enhancement factor of 2 to 3 is required in the case of a large plasma current (30 to 80 MA) in a small-aspect-ratio tokamak. On the other hand, for a small plasma current (≲10 MA), large-aspect-ratio tokamak, an enhancement factor of 5 to 6 is necessary to reach ignition. Fuel dilution effects by fusion products and impurities, the confinement degradation effect due to 14-MeV protons, and the operation paths are also considered. To lower the height of the saddle point, and hence the auxiliary heating power, we optimize the fuel composition and examine operation in the hot ion mode.
