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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.
B.A. Smith, Z. Piek, P. Thomas, R. Vieira
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 19 | Number 3 | May 1991 | Pages 1189-1193
Ignition Device | doi.org/10.13182/FST91-A29504
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The status of the R&D program to evaluate low friction materials for use in the Compact Ignition Tokamak (CIT) is given. The goal is to provide material with a friction coefficient of 0.1 or lower at a 77 K interface between the central solenoid and the case of the toroidal field (TF) coil inner leg. The material must withstand 3000 machine pulses under a transverse compressive stress of about 207 MPa and be able to withstand relative surface motions of the order of 2 mm. A testing machine capable of providing 1.3 MN of compressive load and 0.44 MN of oscillating thrust in the direction of relative motion was prepared and is described in the paper together with the instrumentation and control system. Data can be taken at room temperature and at 77 K. Measured room temperature friction coefficients of the initial single stroke tests are plotted for twelve candidate materials as a function of compressive stress. All candidates exhibited friction coefficients below 0.1 for compressive stress above 172 MPa. Single stroke results on two candidates at 77 K showed friction coefficients higher than their room temperature values by a factor of about 3 at 44 MPa compression, with the coefficients tending toward their room temperature values as the compression was increased to 228 MPa. Of the seven candidates tested cyclically with a 5 mm stroke at 253 MPa and 77 K, only two types of Fiberslip materials met the requisite 3000 cycles. Friction coefficients for all materials are plotted as a function of the number of cycles.