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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.
Philip J. Heitzenroeder, Dale M. Meade, Richard J. Thome, FIRE Project Team
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 39 | Number 2 | March 2001 | Pages 374-377
Advanced Designs | doi.org/10.13182/FST01-A11963262
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
FIRE is a compact, high field tokamak being studied as an option for the next step in the US magnetic fusion energy program. FIRE's programmatic mission is to attain, explore, understand, and optimize alpha-dominated plasmas to provide the knowledge necessary for the design of attractive magnetic fusion energy systems. This study began in 1999 with broad participation of the US fusion community, including several industrial participants. The design under development has a major radius of 2 m, a minor radius of 0.525 m, a field on axis of 10T and capability to operate at 12T with upgrades to power supplies. Toroidal and poloidal field magnets are inertially cooled with liquid nitrogen. An important goal for FIRE is a total project cost in the $1B range. This paper presents an overview of the engineering details which were developed during the FIRE preconceptual design study in FY99 and 00.