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Fusion energy: Progress, partnerships, and the path to deployment
Over the past decade, fusion energy has moved decisively from scientific aspiration toward a credible pathway to a new energy technology. Thanks to long-term federal support, we have significantly advanced our fundamental understanding of plasma physics—the behavior of the superheated gases at the heart of fusion devices. This knowledge will enable the creation and control of fusion fuel under conditions required for future power plants. Our progress is exemplified by breakthroughs at the National Ignition Facility and the Joint European Torus.
E. Gayton, L. Crosatti, D. L. Sadowski, S. I. Abdel-Khalik, M. Yoda, S. Malang
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 56 | Number 1 | July 2009 | Pages 75-79
Divertor and High Heat Flux Components | Eighteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Part 1) | doi.org/10.13182/FST09-31
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The helium-cooled plate-type divertor concept proposed by Malang was designed to accommodate a surface heat load of ~10 MW/m2. This design can potentially reduce the number of modules needed for the divertor by over two orders of magnitude compared with other concepts, thereby significantly reducing coolant delivery system complexity and manufacturing costs. While previous analyses have predicted that the plate design can accommodate heat fluxes of 10 MW/m2, no experimental data have been published to date to validate such analyses. Experiments have therefore been conducted using air as the coolant at Reynolds numbers similar to those proposed for the actual helium-coolant operating conditions on an instrumented test module with cross-sectional geometry identical to the prototypical plate-type divertor. A second test module where the planar jet exiting the inlet manifold is replaced by a two-dimensional hexagonal array of circular jets over the entire top surface of the inlet manifold has also been tested. The thermal performance of both test modules with and without a porous metallic foam layer in the gap between the outer surface of the inlet manifold and the cooled surfaces was directly compared to test the numerical simulations of Sharafat which predict that the metallic foam significantly enhances heat transfer.