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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.
I.N. Sviatoslavsky, G.L. Kulcinski, G.A. Moses, M.E. Sawan, R.L. Engelstad, E. Larsen, E. Lovell, J. MacFarlane, E. Mogahed, R.R. Peterson, J.W. Powers, L.J. Wittenberg
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 19 | Number 3 | May 1991 | Pages 634-639
Inertial Fusion | doi.org/10.13182/FST91-A29416
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
SIRIUS-T is a study of an advanced tritium production facility which utilizes direct drive symmetric illumination inertial confinement fusion provided by a KrF laser. Symmetrically illuminated reactor systems have some very unique problems which have to do with a large number of beams. In SIRIUS-T, a single shell ICF target is illuminated by 92 symmetrically distributed beams around a spherical cavity of 4 m radius. The driver energy is 2 MJ and the target gain 50. The first wall consists of graphite tiles bonded to an actively cooled vanadium structure. There is a 1.0 torr xenon buffer gas in the cavity. The structural material is the vanadium alloy V-3Ti-1Si, the breeding/cooling material is lithium 90% enriched in Li-6 and the neutron multiplier is Be, giving a tritium breeding ratio of 1.903. The total tritium inventory in the reactor is 184 g. A routine release of 29 Ci/d is estimated and the maximum accidental release is 19.9 g. At 100 MJ yield, a repetition rate of 10 Hz and an availability of 70%, a tritium surplus of 33.3 kg per calendar year is achieved. Using 100% debt financing, and a 30 full power year (FPY) reactor lifetime, the cost of tritium production is $8,885/g at 5% interest on capital and $14,611/g at 10% in 1990 dollars.