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Latest News
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.
Shanwen Zhang, Yuntao Song, Zhongwei Wang, Xuebing Peng, Jianfeng Zhang, Yongfa Qin, Linlin Tang, Qiang He
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 73 | Number 1 | January 2018 | Pages 43-49
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1368334
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X), the largest modular stellarator in the world, is in operation at Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Greifswald, Germany. The magnet system of the W7-X consists of 50 nonplanar and 20 planar superconducting coils, which are supported by a massive central support structure. All superconducting coils have been subjected to gravity and electromagnetic force due to the interaction between self-field and the coil current in the test conditions in Saclay, France. Each coil is equipped with a few mechanical sensors. Some of the sensors have indicated considerable deviation from the numerical prediction. The nonplanar coil Type 1 is an example of such deviations. This technical note presents structural analyses performed to verify the numerical modeling by checking the stresses in the measurement points. In order to find the reason from the finite element model, three factors are considered: mesh refinement, increasing the region of mesh refinement, and changing the element supports. The results show that the three factors have no impact on the stresses at the measurement points. Finally, special attention has been paid to the sensors during commissioning of the W7-X, which revealed that lack of information about boundary conditions or temperature fluctuations could be the reason for the original discrepancies.