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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.
D. N. Bridges, J. D. Clement
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 47 | Number 4 | April 1972 | Pages 421-434
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE72-A22434
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This investigation involved a theoretical and experimental study of space-dependent reactor transfer functions with temperature feedback. The reactor transfer function under investigation was the neutron flux response to an input perturbation or source. An existing theoretical model, known as the complex source method, was extended to include temperature feedback effects and the resultant equations were programmed for a model of the Georgia Tech Research Reactor (GTRR). Spatial transfer function measurements were made in the GTRR using an in-core pile oscillator employing a pseudo-random binary sequence. Several detector locations were investigated for both zero-power and at-power (900 kW) conditions over a frequency range from 4 × 10−4 to 8.5 Hz. Data were taken and stored on magnetic tape using two PDP-8 computers and a magnetic tape unit. The theoretical calculations and the experimental results agreed quite closely. Temperature feedback effects for the GTRR were observed to occur at frequencies of 2 × 10−2 Hz and lower, and to become quite pronounced below 1 × 10−3 Hz. Spatial effects were observed to be significant only for frequencies above 1 Hz. The agreement of the calculations with the experimental results served to validate the theoretical model.