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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.
Takanobu Kamei, Tadashi Yoshida
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 84 | Number 2 | June 1983 | Pages 83-97
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE83-1
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In the design of a large liquid-metal fast breeder reactor (LMFBR), the bias-factor method is usually applied to reduce the error of predicted values of neutronics parameters. These bias factors are obtained through the analysis of mock-up experiments. When there exist some differences between the reactor to be designed and its mock-up experimental system, it is impossible to be free from extrapolation errors even after the application of the bias factor. This paper presents an evaluation model for the above kind of extrapolation error, which still remains after the biasing, due to cross-section uncertainties. As an example of an application of this model, the extrapolation error of the design parameters of a 1000-MW(electric) fast breeder reactor was evaluated for the case where bias factors from the large LMFBR mock-up critical experiment, ZPPR-10D, were available. As a result, the error in keff was found to range 0.3 to 1.1% depending on how precisely the reactivity effect of higher plutonium isotopes (especially 241Pu) was predicted. The extrapolation error was predicted to be <2.5% for the control rod worth and also for the fission rate distributions of 239Pu and 238U. It was also shown that the extrapolation error for the control rod worth was reduced by use of a bias factor constructed from some different rod patterns.