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Going Nuclear: Notes from the officially unofficial book tour
I work in the analytical labs at one of Europe’s oldest and largest nuclear sites: Sellafield, in northwestern England. I spend my days at the fume hood front, pipette in one hand and radiation probe in the other (and dosimeter pinned to my chest, of course). Outside the lab, I have a second job: I moonlight as a writer and public speaker. My new popular science book—Going Nuclear: How the Atom Will Save the World—came out last summer, and it feels like my life has been running at full power ever since.
Keiji Miyazaki, Kensuke Konishi, Hiroshi Aoyama, Shoji Inoue, Nobuo Yamaoka
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 19 | Number 3 | May 1991 | Pages 961-968
Blanket Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST91-A29467
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
For reducing the liquid metal MHD pressure drop in the inlet and outlet pipings of a fusion power reactor, the authors proposed a circular duct of electrically insulating function which consists of an outer pipe of metal structure and an inner pipe of insulating ceramics. A basic experiment was made with NaK. The test section which was made of a 25.4 mm O.D. 2.1 mm thick 304-SS pipe and a concentrically inserted 20 mm O.D., 1.0 mm thick FRP pipe with 0.6 mm clearance filled with NaK. The results are quite encouraging as summarized below. (1) The MHD drop gradient is proportional to the flow velocity U and the magnetic flux density B (c.f. B2 for a conducting duct). (2) It is 1.6 times larger than the Shercliff's theory for perfect insulation. (3) It is reduced down to 4.6% at B= 1.0 T and to 3.2% at B= 1.5 T in comparison with the case of uninsulated duct, and to less than 1% if merely extended to B= 5 T or higher.