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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Aalo Atomics achieves criticality on July 4
Executive Order 14301 set an ambitious goal for at least three test reactors to achieve criticality by July 4. Two private companies participating in the Department of Energy’s Reactor Pilot Program—Antares and Valar Atomics—reached this stage earlier in June, and Deployable Energy—participating in the DOE's Nuclear Energy Launch Pad—became the third last week.
In the last few weeks, reports indicated that Aalo would be next, reaching criticality at Idaho National Laboratory with a low-enriched uranium–fueled, sodium-cooled reactor on or near the target date set forth by President Trump’s EO 14301. In the early hours of July 4, Aalo’s critical test reactor—a full-scale zero-power version of its planned 10-MWe Aalo-X—did just that, becoming the fourth DOE-authorized reactor to hit the milestone.
Koji Kusumi, Tomoaki Kunugi, Takehiko Yokomine, Zensaku Kawara, Egemen Kolemen, Hantao Ji, Erik P. Gilson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 72 | Number 4 | November 2017 | Pages 796-800
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1347457
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In this study, the mixing of temperature-stratified liquid metal free-surface flow by a delta-wing obstacle installed on the channel bottom has been experimentally and numerically investigated in the presence of a transverse magnetic field. The surface temperature distribution of the channel was measured by using 25 thermocouples (TCs) embedded in the channel bottom, downstream of the obstacle, which was located upstream of the heater installed at the free-surface. The experiments were conducted for the turbulent flow region where Re = 12,000 and in the range of N = 0–5.02 in the presence of the transverse magnetic field. As for the laminar flow region, it is difficult to carry out the experiment, so the numerical simulations were conducted using Re = 2,300 and in the range of N = 0–10. According to the comparison of numerical results with and without the delta-wing obstacle in laminar flow region, the entire temperature distribution with the obstacle was warmer than that without the obstacle. This was consistent with the expectation that a delta-wing obstacle would increase thermal mixing.
