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Argonne’s METL gears up to test more sodium fast reactor components
Argonne National Laboratory has successfully swapped out an aging cold trap in the sodium test loop called METL (Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop), the Department of Energy announced April 23. The upgrade is the first of its kind in the United States in more than 30 years, according to the DOE, and will help test components and operations for the sodium-cooled fast reactors being developed now.
Farrokh Najmabadi
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 30 | Number 3 | December 1996 | Pages 1286-1292
Power Plant Design and Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST96-A11963125
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Starlite Project was initiated to investigate the mission, requirements and goals, features, and the R&D needs of the Fusion Demonstration Power Plant based on tokamak confinement concept. It is obvious that the Fusion Demo should demonstrate that a commercial fusion power plant would be accepted by utility and industry (i.e., it is affordable and profitable) and by the general public and government (i.e., it has superior safety and environmental features). Therefore, as the first step in the Starlite project, a set of quantifiable top-level requirements, and goals for both commercial fusion power plants and the Fusion Demo were developed. Next, several candidate options for physics operation regime as well engineering design of various components (e.g., choice of structural material, coolant, breeder) have been developed and assessed. In each area, this assessment was aimed at investigating (1) the potential to satisfy the requirements and goals, and (2) the feasibility e.g., critical issues and credibility (e.g., degree extrapolation required from present data base). This assessment led to the choice of the reversed-shear as the tokamak plasma operation regime and a self-cooled lithium design with vanadium alloy for blanket and in-vessel structures for detailed design. This paper presents a summary of top-level requirements and goals for fusion power and overviews the results of our assessment of tokamak plasma physics and technology options and designs.