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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Fusion Science and Technology
August 2025
Latest News
DOE fast tracks test reactor projects: What to know
The Department of Energy today named 10 companies that want to get a test reactor critical within the next year using the DOE’s offer to authorize test reactors outside of national laboratories. As first outlined in one of the four executive orders on nuclear energy released by President Trump on May 23 and in the request for applications for the Reactor Pilot Program released June 18, the companies must use their own money and sites—and DOE authorization—to get reactors operating. What they won’t need is a Nuclear Regulatory Commission license.
S. G. Durbin, M. Yoda, S. I. Abdel-Khalik, D. L. Sadowski, T. P. Koehler, ARIES Team
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 47 | Number 1 | January 2005 | Pages 16-26
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A595
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The "hydrodynamic source term" has been identified as a possible issue for thick liquid protection schemes in inertial fusion energy reactor cavities. The hydrodynamic source term refers to the ejected droplets due to the primary turbulent breakup of the jets themselves. Droplets are continuously ejected from the surface of the jets and spread about the chamber, possibly interfering with driver propagation and target injection. Published correlations are examined in order to estimate upper limits for the hydrodynamic source term in the case of the robust point design (RPD-2002), an update to the High-Yield Lithium Injection Fusion Energy II (HYLIFE-II) design. Experimental data for vertical turbulent sheets of water issuing into ambient air downward from nozzles of thickness (small dimension) = 1 cm and aspect ratio of 10 are compared with the empirical correlations at near-prototypical Reynolds numbers of 1.3 × 105. A simple mass collection technique was developed to estimate the amount of ejected droplets from the jet surface. Boundary layer cutting is examined as a means of reducing the source term and improving surface smoothness. Alternate flow conditioning schemes are also explored to establish the relative importance of "traditional" flow straightening elements. Planar laser-induced fluorescence was used to visualize the free-surface geometry of the liquid sheet in the near-field region up to 25 downstream of the nozzle exit. These results indicate that boundary layer cutting can suppress the hydrodynamic source term for a well-conditioned jet but is not a substitute for proper flow conditioning.
