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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.
I. Maya, R.F. Bourque, R.L. Creedon, K.R. Schultz
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 8 | Number 1 | July 1985 | Pages 1832-1837
Inertial Confinement Fusion Reactor | Proceedings of the Sixth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (San Francisco, California, March 3-7, 1985) | doi.org/10.13182/FST85-A40027
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Cascade ICF reactor features a flowing blanket of solid BeO and LiAlO2 granules with very high temperature capability (up to ∼2300 K). We present here the design of a high temperature granule transport and heat exchange system, and two options for high efficiency power conversion. The centrifugal-throw transport system uses the peripheral speed imparted to the granules by the rotating chamber to effect granule transport and requires no additional equipment. The heat exchanger design is a vacuum heat transfer concept utilizing gravity-induced flow of the granules over ceramic heat exchange surfaces. A reference Brayton power cycle is presented which achieves 55% net efficiency with 1300 K peak helium temperature. A modified Field steam cycle (a hybrid Rankine/Brayton cycle) is presented as an alternate which achieves 56% net efficiency.