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Latest News
Smarter waste strategies: Helping deliver on the promise of advanced nuclear
At COP28, held in Dubai in 2023, a clear consensus emerged: Nuclear energy must be a cornerstone of the global clean energy transition. With electricity demand projected to soar as we decarbonize not just power but also industry, transport, and heat, the case for new nuclear is compelling. More than 20 countries committed to tripling global nuclear capacity by 2050. In the United States alone, the Department of Energy forecasts that the country’s current nuclear capacity could more than triple, adding 200 GW of new nuclear to the existing 95 GW by mid-century.
Shigeru Akiyama, Shigeyasu Amada
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 23 | Number 4 | July 1993 | Pages 426-434
Technical Paper | Material Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST93-A30135
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Structural ceramics are attracting attention in the development of nuclear fusion reactors because they have excellent wear- and heat-resistant characteristics. However, in some applications, they will be exposed to very high temperature and high-heat-flux environments. These ceramics are also subjected to thermal loadings that change rapidly with time. Therefore, it is important to investigate their thermal shock characteristics. A new approach to evaluate the thermal shock resistance of structural ceramics is based on laser pulse irradiation on the ceramic surface. The temperature and thermal stress distributions of cylindrical ceramics under irradiation by laser beams are discussed by using the MARC finite element computer code with arbitrary quadrilateral axisymmetric ring elements. The relationship between the spot diameter of the laser beam and the maximum compressive thermal stress is derived for various power densities of the laser beams. A critical fracture curve is obtained from these relationships that can specify a critical power density for a given laser beam spot diameter. The irradiation experiments are done on a machinable ceramic by using a CO2 laser. Finally, theoretical results are compared with experimental ones. Both results show good agreements. Consequently, this method can be a new standard thermal shock test instead of the water quench test that has been used widely.
