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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.
Gabriele Ferrero, Samuele Meschini, Raffaella Testoni
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 78 | Number 8 | November 2022 | Pages 617-630
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2022.2096365
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Affordable, Robust, Compact (ARC) fusion reactor is a preconceptual design proposed by the Plasma Science and Fusion Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that will be developed by Commonwealth Fusion Systems. ARC features a Li2BeF4 (FLiBe) molten salt liquid blanket that provides reactor cooling, neutron shielding, and tritium breeding. This work aims to develop a preliminary coupled computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and tritium transport model to describe FLiBe flow inside the tank and to assess ARC tritium inventory in the vacuum vessel and blanket. Both models are built by taking advantage of COMSOL® Multiphysics. FLiBe velocity and temperature fields are evaluated by the CFD models, and they are passed as input to the tritium transport model. The tritium transport model computes tritium concentration inside solid materials and FLiBe. An auxiliary FLiBe inlet has been moved from the original position in the ARC preconceptual design to improve blanket cooling and to reduce the size of flow eddies. Results show that many recirculation zones generate inside the tank for the chosen tank geometry, size, and inlet-outlet conditions. Larger FLiBe temperature and tritium concentration are found in these zones. The high FLiBe temperature in recirculation areas may not allow for effective cooling, and Inconel 718 reaches critical temperatures. The largest tritium concentration for a steady-state model with continuity of tritium partial pressure at the interfaces is found in Inconel 718 while the second-highest concentration is reached in FLiBe. The total tritium inventory in the ARC blanket with the assumed model is quantified as 3.16 g.