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In transition: Commercializing fusion power
Commercial fusion power is closer than ever. There are now around 30 U.S. fusion companies, several of which claim to be on track to connect to the grid as early as the 2030s.
Tokamak and laser inertial confinement approaches benefit from decades of research at facilities such as the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and ITER, with alternative concepts including stellarator, magnetic mirror, and Z-pinch confinement also making notable progress as private and government funding for fusion increases.
H. Mikami
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 67 | Number 2 | August 1978 | Pages 235-246
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE78-A15438
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The kinetics of excitation in the laser enrichment process is sensitively dependent upon the density and temperature distribution in a freely expanding jet. In the present paper, the source flow expansion of the viscous heat-conducting low-density gas accompanied by a compression shock wave was studied by solving the unsteady Navier-Stokes equations. The basic equations were solved using the numerical scheme proposed by Sakurai. The numerical results presented are those of density and temperature profiles for uranium hexafluoride gas under various conditions. The effects of viscous dissipation and the rotational nonequilibrium were discussed. To examine the accuracy of the continuum source flow model, the prediction of the model is compared with the available experimental data. These numerical results will be useful in practical calculations for the design of laser enrichment apparatus.