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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.
H. W. Lewis
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 98 | Number 1 | January 1988 | Pages 79-81
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE88-A23527
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A Bayesian analysis is made of the probability of core melt (defined as “core on the floor”) for U.S. reactors, using methods that are an extension of those used in an earlier work, and that can therefore be used to answer different questions. The essential new point is that at any time the estimate of the probability of core melt varies continuously as melt-free experience accumulates, with a substantial effect on the estimates. The most interesting result is that the probability of no-melt-yet stays large somewhat longer than one might have guessed, largely because melt-free experience feeds on itself in reducing the probability of subsequent core melt, and this process continues until the first melt.