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Oregon bill would create new feasibility study
Historical photo of Trojan nuclear power plant, ca. 1974. (Photo: DOE)
As concerns over growing energy needs persist, yet another state is reconsidering nuclear power. A piece of legislation is currently progressing through Oregon’s legislature that would direct the Oregon Department of Energy (ODOE) to conduct a study to assess the feasibility of deploying new power reactors in the state.
Xue Zhou Jin
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 77 | Number 5 | July 2021 | Pages 391-402
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2021.1904769
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
For the helium-cooled pebble bed breeding blanket concept improved in 2016 and the associated primary heat transfer system (PHTS) following EU DEMO Baseline 2015, an ex-vessel loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) has been investigated with the assumption of a double-ended guillotine break of a main pipe in an outboard (OB) loop of the PHTS. The break leads to helium blowdown into the tokamak cooling room. A fast plasma shutdown followed by a plasma disruption is activated after the detection of the LOCA due to the design basis accident. Regarding three affected first-wall (FW) areas in one or two OB loops, three main cases are considered. If the FW temperature reaches the defined temperature limit of 1000°C, the FW is assumed to be failed such that an in-vessel LOCA results. In total five scenarios are simulated using MELCOR 1.8.6 for fusion with respect to the affected FW areas, mitigated or unmitigated plasma disruption conditions, the options of the dry or wet suppression tank, and the transport of source terms performed in the case of the beyond design basis accident without the plasma shutdown. The transient results are discussed for the time evolution of the accident sequences, pressurization in the systems, temperature behavior in volumes and structures, and tritium and dust transport behavior.