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Education and training to support Canadian nuclear workforce development
Along with several other nations, Canada has committed to net-zero emissions by 2050. Part of this plan is tripling nuclear generating capacity. As of 2025, the country has four operating nuclear generating stations with a total of 17 reactors, 16 of which are in the province of Ontario. The Independent Electricity System Operator has recommended that an additional 17,800 MWe of nuclear power be added to Ontario’s grid.
Nicolae Bidica, Anisia Bornea, Nicolae Sofilca, Ciprian Bucur, Marian Curuia
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 76 | Number 3 | April 2020 | Pages 275-283
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2019.1705751
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The control of tritium permeation through the structural materials of fusion reactors is an important safety issue, and because both deuterium and tritium are fuel constituents, the effects of isotopes have to be taken into account in permeation assessments. Although various mathematical models and experiments regarding hydrogen isotope permeation through metals have been carried out so far, there are still unresolved issues like those regarding synergistic isotope effects (by which an isotope influences the permeation of another isotope when multiple isotopes permeate simultaneously). Some controversial issues of other previous steady-state work have led us to set up a non-steady-state model for multi-isotope permeation in a surface-limited regime (SLR). The mathematical model and the results obtained by numerical simulation (which are published elsewhere) have shown that in contrast to some previous steady-state approaches, the permeation flux of a heavier isotope is not reduced by the presence of a lighter one; to the contrary, it is increased. This theoretical prediction has to be verified against experimental data, and this is the goal of future work. But, the differences between multi-isotope and single-isotope permeations are not so large, and some deviations of the experimental model from the assumptions of the theoretical model (like SLR, constant partial pressures in retentate, or vacuum on the permeate side) could affect the theoretical predictions or could lead to misinterpretations of the experimental data. Therefore, these kinds of deviations and their effects have been analyzed within this work with the aim of implementing, in the experimental model, appropriate measures to mitigate these undesirable effects. The conceptual design of the proposed experimental setup and a procedure for setting some key operating parameters (like flow rates and pressure of the purge gas) are also presented.