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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.
G. L. Kulcinski, J. F. Santarius
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 72 | Number 3 | October 2017 | Pages 242-247
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1333863
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
It will be several decades before the first commercial fusion power plant is placed on the electricity grid. However, there are many non-electricity uses for fusion energy that can be realized in the next 5–10 years when the Q value (energy out/energy in) obtained in fusion systems is ≪1. This paper explores those possibilities dividing them into 3 categories: 1) Commercial Products, 2) Applications for Academia and Utilities, 3) Applications for Military/Governmental uses. At the present time, over 20 near term applications have been identified but it is expected that there could be many more once the fusion community focuses on the near term time frame. Since the near term applications do not require Q > 1, all fusion reactions can be considered. This means, for example, that one can consider fusion reactions that not only emit neutrons (from DT and DD) but also other reactions such as D3He that emit high-energy (14 MeV) protons because they can be used to make short half life Positron Emission Tomography (PET) isotopes. Both steady state and pulsed fusion reactions are also fair game because there is no reason for Q > 1 to be a constraint.