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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.N. Sviatoslavsky, E. A. Mogahed, E. T. Cheng, R. J. Cerbone, Y-K. M. Peng, X. R. Wang
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 34 | Number 3 | November 1998 | Pages 1061-1065
Nuclear Testing and Design (Poster Session) | doi.org/10.13182/FST98-A11963754
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Mechanical, thermal and neutronics design aspects of the toroidal field coil centerpost (CP) for a spherical torus based volumetric neutron source (ST-VNS) are presented. It is being investigated with support of a DOE-SBIR under the direction of TSI Research Inc. of Solana Beach, CA. The ST-VNS is to provide a test bed for developing nuclear technologies, as well as qualifying blanket designs for future fusion reactors. The device is scoped to be capable of staged operation with a neutron wall loading range of 0.5–4.0 MW/m2 as the physics and engineering design assumptions are raised from modest to aggressive levels. Margins in the design are ensured, since operation at 2 MW/m2 neutron wall loading will satisfy the mission of the VNS. The device has a naturally diverted plasma with a major radius of 1.1m, a minor radius of 0.78 m for an aspect ratio of 1.4, an elongation of 3, a triangularity of 0.6 and can be driven with neutral beams (NB) or radio frequency (RF). It utilizes a single turn; unshielded normal conducting CP made of dispersion strengthened (DS) Cu that is 15.5 m long and has a diameter of 0.55 m at the midplane. Resistive heating at the start of operation is 153 MW and increases to 178 MW after three full power years. The effect of transmutation in the Cu causes an increase in the resistivity, producing a shift in the CP current towards the center. The results of this shift on power distribution are reported.