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Playing the “bad guy” to enhance next-generation safety
Sometimes, cops and robbers is more than just a kid’s game. At the Department of Energy’s national laboratories, researchers are channeling their inner saboteurs to discover vulnerabilities in next-generation nuclear reactors, making sure that they’re as safe as possible before they’re even constructed.
A. Nikroo, J. Bousquet, R. Cook, B. W. McQuillan, R. Paguio, M. Takagi
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 45 | Number 2 | March 2004 | Pages 165-170
Technical Paper | Target Fabrication | doi.org/10.13182/FST45-2-165
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
All planned National Ignition Facility (NIF) capsule targets except machined beryllium require a glow discharge polymer (GDP) mandrel upon which the ablator is applied. This mandrel, ~2 mm in diameter, must at least meet if not exceed the symmetry and surface finish requirements of the final capsule. Such mandrels are currently produced by the three-step depolymerizable mandrel technique. The quality of the final mandrel depends upon precise optimization and execution of each of the three steps. We had shown previously that fabrication of a mandrel which met the symmetry and surface finish requirements was feasible using this technique. In this paper we will discuss recent progress towards converting this process into a high yield, production scale process.