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Second round of Launch Pad selections includes eight newcomers
The National Reactor Innovation Center at Idaho National Laboratory has announced 13 project selections across 12 companies for the Nuclear Energy Launch Pad, a Department of Energy–led program that integrates reactor and fuel facility authorization, testing, and deployment support for private nuclear developers.
The Launch Pad emerged from the Reactor Pilot Program and Fuel Line Pilot Program.
According to INL, projects selected include reactor development and nuclear fuel cycle advancements, including fabrication, enrichment, and conversion technologies.
U. Shahid, B. W. N. Fitzpatrick, C. P. Chrobak, J. W. Davis, M. H. A. Piro
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 77 | Number 4 | May 2021 | Pages 279-288
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2021.1883979
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The erosion and redeposition of first-wall armor materials is a problem in nuclear fusion devices with carbon walls, where deuterium, tritium, and (eroded) carbon present in the plasma are deposited on the walls of the device, trapping the expensive and radiologically hazardous tritium. Thermo-oxidation, in which vessel surfaces are heated and oxygen containing gas is injected, is a possible solution. It results in the production of carbon oxides and tritiated water vapor, which can be pumped out by the vacuum pumps and recycled in a tritium recycling facility. In the present study, thermogravimetric analysis was used to measure the mass loss (or gain) of codeposited specimens from the General Atomics DIII-D National Fusion Facility under thermo-oxidation, in addition to laser thermal desorption spectroscopy. X-ray photo-electron spectroscopy was also used in this work to examine the tile’s surface composition pre and post oxidation. Dust scraped from the specimen was also studied, as this is a surrogate for dust that naturally falls from the tile codeposits and builds up in the tile gaps. One key conclusion is that boron oxides form where boron is present in the codeposit as an impurity, and these oxides dominate the weight-change behavior of the codeposit specimens for long exposures.