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Playing the “bad guy” to enhance next-generation safety
Sometimes, cops and robbers is more than just a kid’s game. At the Department of Energy’s national laboratories, researchers are channeling their inner saboteurs to discover vulnerabilities in next-generation nuclear reactors, making sure that they’re as safe as possible before they’re even constructed.
Philippe M. Bardet et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 47 | Number 3 | April 2005 | Pages 626-632
Technical Paper | Fusion Energy - Inertial Fusion Technology | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A756
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper presents an update of the work done at University of California, Berkeley (UCB) on thick-liquid protection of inertial fusion energy (IFE) chambers. UCB is focusing on microsecond, millisecond, and quasi-steady phenomena. Over microsecond time scales, numerical simulations, performed with the code TSUNAMI permit modeling of IFE chambers gas dynamics. For the millisecond range, the liquid jets response to the fusion reaction impulse loading is being studied for both Z-Pinch and HYLIFE-II-type chambers. A new mineral oil has been identified that allows scaled molten salt experiments with low distortion. Vortex tube flow, a key liquid structure of the 2002 Robust Point Design has been investigated in scaled experiments using the mineral oil, while a new design for thick liquid wall protection is under development. In quasi-steady phenomena, recent work has measured the Flibe vapor pressure and composition at near melting point temperature using mass spectrometry.