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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
August 2025
Latest News
TVA and Entra1 to deploy 6 GW of NuScale SMRs
The Tennessee Valley Authority and Houston, Texas–based energy production company Entra1 Energy recently announced the signing of an agreement to collaborate on the deployment of six new nuclear power plants equipped with NuScale small modular reactors.
H. Xu, H. Huang, J. Walker, C. Kong, N. G. Rice, M. P. Mauldin, J. D. Vocke, J. H. Bae, W. Sweet, F. H. Elsner, M. P. Farrell, Y. M. Wang, C. Alford, T. Cardenas, E. Loomis
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 73 | Number 3 | April 2018 | Pages 354-362
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1387459
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Double-shell inertial confinement fusion targets represent a unique platform for achieving ignition. They consist of a low-Z outer ablator, a high-Z inner pusher layer, and a low-density foam layer sandwiched in between. There is the possibility that double-shell targets may achieve ignition at lower ion temperatures due to the containment of radiation and conduction losses as well as requiring smaller convergence ratios. We have explored using magnetron sputtering to make the inner high-Z pusher layers and have demonstrated a W-Cr bilayer inner-shell design. An Al-Be mixture was explored as one of the outer ablator materials. This material takes advantage of Al X-ray M-band absorption to reduce preheating and still retain Be high-ablation speeds. Typical commercial Al-Be materials suffer from phase separation. However, by using magnetron sputtering we have been able to demonstrate homogeneous Al-Be ablator coatings. The sputtered material forms with nanosized grains and has demonstrated excellent machinability. As a second type of shell explored, pushered single shells can exploit large density gradients to stabilize Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities during compression. Sharp gradients will have higher ignition yields and larger grading lengths will be more stable. We were able to demonstrate pushered single shells made from W-Be gradient layers with various grading slopes and provide simulated results showing that the grading profiles can be influenced by the coating rates of two components.