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As Nuclear News has done since 2022, we have compiled a review of the nuclear news that filled headlines and sparked conversations in the year just completed. Departing from the chronological format of years past, we open with the most impactful news of 2025: a survey of actions and orders of the Trump administration that are reshaping nuclear research, development, deployment, and commercialization. We then highlight some of the top news in nuclear restarts, new reactor testing programs, the fuel supply chain and broader fuel cycle, and more.
E. A. Mogahed
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 30 | Number 3 | December 1996 | Pages 1574-1578
Fusion Power Plants and Economics | doi.org/10.13182/FST96-A11963175
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
LIBRA-SP is a conceptual design study of an inertially confined 1000 MWe fusion power reactor utilizing self-pinched light ion beams. There are 24 ion beams which are arranged around the reactor cavity. The reaction chamber is an upright cylinder with an inverted conical roof resembling a mushroom, and a pool floor. The vertical sides of the cylinder are occupied by a blanket zone consisting of many perforated rigid HT-9 ferritic steel tubes called PERITs (PErforated RIgid Tube). The breeding/cooling material, liquid lead-lithium, flows through the PERITs, providing protection to the reflector/vacuum chamber so as to make it a lifetime component. The neutronics analysis and cavity hydrodynamics calculations are performed to account for the neutron heating and also to determine the effects of vaporization/condensation processes on the surface heat flux. The steady state nuclear heating distribution at the midplane is used for thermal hydraulics calculations. The maximum surface temperature of the HT-9 is chosen to not exceed 625°C to avoid drastic deterioration of the metal's mechanical properties. This choice restricts the thermal hydraulics performance of the reaction cavity. The inlet first surface coolant bulk temperature is 370°C, and the heat exchanger inlet coolant bulk temperature is 502°C.