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Fusion Science and Technology
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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.
P. Goldschmidt
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 49 | Number 3 | November 1972 | Pages 263-273
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE72-A22541
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Pontryagin’s Maximum Principle and Robbins’ Criterion allow us to find, in the general case of intermediate reactors, the distribution of fuel enrichment that minimizes the critical mass of a reactor of given power and subject to constraints on the maximum power density and on the enrichment. The two group diffusion model is used in slab geometry. The optimal sequence of control (enrichment) zones is made up of a central constant power density zone, a zone of maximum enrichment, a zone of variable enrichment (where the control is singular) and finally an external zone of minimum enrichment (or a reflector). In the particular case of fast reactors the optimal solution does not include the singular control zone.