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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.
Bart J. Daly, Francis H. Harlow
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 77 | Number 3 | March 1981 | Pages 273-284
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE81-A19838
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A numerical study was performed to derive a model of countercurrent steam-water flow in large horizontal pipes, with application to the emergency core cooling (ECC) system of a pressurized water reactor. The purpose of the study was to provide data from which simple correlations could be obtained to describe mass, momentum, and energy exchange between the phases during hot leg ECC injection. It was assumed that steam, driven by a pressure drop from the upper plenum to the ECC injection port, flows counter to the subcooled ECC water. Several series of calculations were performed to determine the sensitivity of the ECC flow velocity at the entrance to the reactor vessel to the pressure drop, for several values of the mass and momentum exchange coefficients used in the numerical method. The results were consistent with those obtained from solution of the mixture equation, which did not involve interfacial drag or condensation.