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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
High-temperature plumbing and advanced reactors
The use of nuclear fission power and its role in impacting climate change is hotly debated. Fission advocates argue that short-term solutions would involve the rapid deployment of Gen III+ nuclear reactors, like Vogtle-3 and -4, while long-term climate change impact would rely on the creation and implementation of Gen IV reactors, “inherently safe” reactors that use passive laws of physics and chemistry rather than active controls such as valves and pumps to operate safely. While Gen IV reactors vary in many ways, one thing unites nearly all of them: the use of exotic, high-temperature coolants. These fluids, like molten salts and liquid metals, can enable reactor engineers to design much safer nuclear reactors—ultimately because the boiling point of each fluid is extremely high. Fluids that remain liquid over large temperature ranges can provide good heat transfer through many demanding conditions, all with minimal pressurization. Although the most apparent use for these fluids is advanced fission power, they have the potential to be applied to other power generation sources such as fusion, thermal storage, solar, or high-temperature process heat.1–3
E. M. Giraldez, M. L. Hoppe Jr., D. E. Hoover, A. Q. L. Nguyen, N. G. Rice, A. M. Garcia, H. Huang, M. P. Mauldin, M. P. Farrell, A. Nikroo, V. Smalyuk
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 70 | Number 2 | August-September 2016 | Pages 258-264
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST15-234
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Hydrodynamic instability growth and its effects on capsule implosion performance are being studied at the National Ignition Facility (NIF). Experimental results have shown that low-mode instabilities are the primary culprit for yield degradation. Ignition-type capsules with machined two-dimensional (2-D) sinusoidal defects were used to measure low-mode hydrodynamic instability growth in the acceleration phase of the capsule implosion. The capsules were imploded using ignition-relevant laser pulses and the ablation-front modulation growth was measured using X-ray radiography. The experimentally measured growth was in good agreement with simulations.
Fabrication of the preimposed 2-D sinusoidal defects of different wavelengths and amplitudes on the surfaces of ignition-type capsules was accomplished by General Atomics leading up to and during the Hydro-Growth Radiography campaign for the hydrodynamic instability growth experiments conducted at NIF between 2013 and 2014. The 2-D sinusoidal defects were imposed on ignition-type capsules by machining the surface of the capsule. The fabrication trials showed that there are six parameters that can affect the ripple form, wall thickness, and the extent of the pattern about the equator of the capsule: (1) knowing accurately the outer diameter of the capsule, (2) the roundness of the capsule (modal content), (3) the cutting tool alignment with respect to the surface of the capsule, (4) the radius and form of the cutting tool, (5) tool touch-off, and (6) the runout of the capsule center with respect to the axis of rotation of the lathe’s spindle. In this paper, we will describe the importance of these parameters on the machining of uniform 2-D sinusoidal defects.
