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Latest News
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.
D. C. Donovan, D. R. Boris, G. L. Kulcinski, J. F. Santarius
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 56 | Number 1 | July 2009 | Pages 507-511
Experimental Facilities and Nonelectric Applications | Eighteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Part 1) | doi.org/10.13182/FST09-22
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison Inertial Electrostatic Confinement (IEC) Fusion Research Group has been performing experiments on an IEC device known as HOMER. This device is a 65cm high, 91cm diameter cylindrical aluminum vacuum chamber that contains two concentric spherical wire grids, the outer grid acting as the anode and the inner grid as the cathode. The potential difference between the anode and cathode drives ions towards the center of the grids. Using this device, steady-state D-D fusion reactions are created in order to produce 2.45 MeV neutrons. With the goal of achieving maximum neutron production rates, the following parameters have been varied: cathode voltage, ion current, operating pressure, and the separation distance between the anode and cathode. The studies on pressure, voltage, and current have led to the discovery of trends that allow for the extrapolation of neutron rates at various conditions. The cathode/anode separation studies have offered valuable insight into how the distance between the electrodes effects the concentration of deuterium molecular ions and the ion energy spectra, and has led to the implementation of a configuration that better maximizes neutron production rates.