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Latest News
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.
S. H. Chan, H. H. Tseng
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 71 | Number 2 | August 1979 | Pages 215-227
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE79-A20415
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In analyzing radiant energy exchange between fuel and coolant in a reactor, it is necessary to know the reflection, absorption, and emission characteristics of the fuel and its interface with the coolant. Because of the unavailability and great uncertainty of these radiation properties, they are calculated from the electromagnetic theory of optics, and results are presented here. Depending on the contacting medium, six types of surfaces received consideration. They are the interfaces between uranium dioxide and sodium, uranium dioxide and steel, uranium dioxide and a gas, water and a gas, steel and a gas, as well as sodium and a gas. The spectral interface reflectance and the spectral absorptance from one side of the medium to the other side are evaluated for all wavelengths. These spectral properties are further integrated to yield the total hemispherical properties for a black body source over a temperature range from 1200 to 6000 K. Comparisons are made with available experimental data or calculated values, and the agreement is found to be generally good.