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Restart progress and a new task force in Iowa
This week, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed an executive order to form the Iowa Nuclear Energy Task Force, the purpose of which will be to “advise her, the General Assembly, and relevant state agencies on the development and advancement of nuclear energy technologies and infrastructure in the state.”
Marcos X. Navarro, Marziyeh Zamiri, Martin E. Griswold, John F. Santarius, Gerald L. Kulcinski, Max Lagally, Toshiki Tajima
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 75 | Number 6 | August 2019 | Pages 542-550
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2019.1610317
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This research explores the performance of graphene as a coating for plasma-facing components (PFCs) in a nuclear fusion environment. Our recent studies have shown that graphene can act as a resistant layer against plasma exposure and ion bombardment. PFCs tend to develop surface morphologies that lead to mass loss of the wall material, potentially diminishing their lifetime and degrading plasma performance. We present a characterization of graphene-coated samples of W irradiated in the C-2W divertor. Energy analyzers were used to determine average ion fluxes to the samples on the order of 1018 D+/cm2. Two samples were exposed over 1210 plasma discharges. Raman spectroscopy showed that slow ions (30 < E < 100 eV) interact strongly with the graphene, introducing vacancies into the membrane (ID/IG ~ 0.7), making it possible to assess the limiting factors on such a coating’s lifetime. We also found that graphene slows down impurity deposition on the material surfaces due to graphene’s stable configuration and low surface energy. This first attempt at testing the coating in a large-scale fusion experiment aims to expand the possible wall candidates for PFCs.