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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.
B. Mahalakshmi, P. Mohanakrishnan
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 115 | Number 4 | December 1993 | Pages 341-347
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE93-A24064
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Investigations were performed on the ZPPR-13A critical assembly to determine the cause of the radial variation of the calculated-to-experimental (C/E) ratio for control rod worth in large heterogeneous cores. The effects of errors in cross section, mesh size, group condensation, transport, and modeling were studied by using two- and three-dimensional diffusion calculations and three-dimensional transport calculations. In that process, the cross-section set and the calculation scheme that are being used for fast reactor design in India have been revalidated. The cross-section set was found to yield satisfactory results. Three-dimensional calculations with adjusted and unadjusted cross sections confirmed that the error in cross sections was largely responsible for the radial dependence of the C/E ratios. The contributions from group condensation and mesh size errors were <2%, and from modeling errors and transport correction, <1%. The effect of these errors is insignificant when compared with the effect of the cross-section error. The analysis also showed that even without the adjustment in diffusion coefficient suggested in earlier studies, a satisfactory prediction is found, at least for this benchmark. The diffusion-to-transport correction for control rod worth was found to be -7%.