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From Capitol Hill: Nuclear is back, critical for America’s energy future
The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy convened its first hearing of the year, “American Energy Dominance: Dawn of the New Nuclear Era,” on January 7, where lawmakers and industry leaders discussed how nuclear energy can help meet surging electricity demand driven by artificial intelligence, data centers, advanced manufacturing, and national security needs.
R. McEachern, C. Alford
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 35 | Number 2 | March 1999 | Pages 115-118
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST99-A11963912
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
We are studying the feasibility of using boron doping to refine the grain structure of sputter-deposited Be for NIF ignition capsule ablators. The goal is to improve the surface finish and homogeneity of these coatings. Films deposited on flat silicon substrates display a pronounced change in structure at a concentration of ∼11 at.% B. At lower levels of B, grain sizes of about 200 nm are observed. AFM images show the roughness of these films to be about 20 nm rms. At higher levels of B, the grains size drops to below 50 nm and the roughness decreases to less than 2.5 nm rms. Films deposited on capsules do not show the same behavior. In particular, at 15 at.% B, the capsule coatings have nodular structure with an rms roughness of greater than 50 nm. When viewed in cross section, however, no structure is seen with either the flat films or the capsule coatings. We believe that differences in substrate temperature may be largely responsible for the observed behavior.