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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Bipartisan commission report urges national fusion strategy
In the report Fusion Forward: Powering America’s Future issued earlier this month by the Special Competitive Studies Project’s (SCSP) Commission on the Scaling of Fusion Energy, it warns that the United States is on the verge of losing the fusion power race to China.
Noting that China has invested at least $6.5 billion in its fusion enterprise since 2023, almost three times the funding received by the U.S. Department of Energy’s fusion program over the same period, the commission report urges the U.S. government to prioritize the rapid commercialization of fusion energy to secure U.S. national security and restore American energy leadership.
SCSP is a nonpartisan, nonprofit initiative making recommendations to strengthen America’s long-term competitiveness in emerging technologies. Launched in fall 2024, the 13-member commission is led by Sens. Maria Cantwell (D., Wash.) and Jim Risch (R., Idaho), along with SCSP president and commission co-chair Ylli Bajraktari.
Theron Marshall, Robert Pawelko, Robert A. Anderl, Galen R. Smolik, Richard L. Moore, Brad Merrill
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 45 | Number 4 | June 2004 | Pages 592-596
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST04-A534
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Carbon fiber composites (CFCs) are often suggested as armor material for the first wall of a fusion plasma chamber because of carbon's low atomic number, high thermal conductivity, and high melting point. However, carbon is chemically reactive in air and readily absorbs tritium. Accordingly, it is believed that during a loss-of-vacuum accident (LOVA), the CFC armor will react with the air ingress and release its absorbed tritium. The mobilization of this tritium and the carbon monoxide produced by the CFC-air chemical reaction are both safety concerns. This paper discusses the MELCOR thermal-hydraulic analysis of a simulated LOVA for the SOMBRERO fusion design. The MELCOR analysis is important because it included data from recent oxidation experiments that studied the advanced CFC NB31. A previous MELCOR analysis of a simulated SOMBRERO LOVA event suggested that the ingress of air would aggressively oxidize the CFC. While the current analysis revealed initial first-wall temperatures that exceed those of the prior analyses, the trend reversed 10 h after the onset of the LOVA. The calculated wall temperatures at the back of the blanket for the current analysis were consistently lower than those previously calculated using the older data. Accordingly, the conclusion is that a LOVA event for a fusion design similar to SOMBRERO may not be as grave as once predicted.