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Going Nuclear: Notes from the officially unofficial book tour
I work in the analytical labs at one of Europe’s oldest and largest nuclear sites: Sellafield, in northwestern England. I spend my days at the fume hood front, pipette in one hand and radiation probe in the other (and dosimeter pinned to my chest, of course). Outside the lab, I have a second job: I moonlight as a writer and public speaker. My new popular science book—Going Nuclear: How the Atom Will Save the World—came out last summer, and it feels like my life has been running at full power ever since.
C. Jong, J. Knaster, C. Sborchia
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 56 | Number 2 | August 2009 | Pages 666-671
ITER | Eighteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Part 2) | doi.org/10.13182/FST09-A8985
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Toroidal Field (TF) system of ITER consists of 18 coils in which the winding pack (WP) is formed by 7 stacked double pancakes (DP). The conductors in the TF coil are operated in steady state mode with a current of 68 kA providing a flux of 5.4 T at the plasma axis. The conductors are wrapped with turn insulation and embedded in grooves manufactured in so called radial plates. The grooves are closed with covers, wrapped with glass and polyimide tapes and vacuum impregnated. This layout of the TF WP prevents the accumulation of stresses in the turn insulation, making unlikely the occurrence of a turn-to-turn short circuit. The insulation of the WP will undergo during ITER design lifetime fast neutron fluencies up to 3.2x1021n/m2, which is equivalent to 10 MGy. Standard epoxies degrade if submitted to such doses, developing mechanical properties that would not withstand the estimated operation in-plane shear stress in the range of 45 MPa. The use of a radiation-hard thermoset for glass-fiber composites (cyanate ester) is considered and the on-going extensive qualification work will be presented. The technical solution of how to isolate critical High Voltage (HV) areas like the joint connections or voltage taps is also discussed.