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Godzilla is helping ITER prepare for tokamak assembly
ITER employees stand by Godzilla, the most powerful commercially available industrial robot available. (Photo: ITER)
Many people are familiar with Godzilla as a giant reptilian monster that emerged from the sea off the coast of Japan, the product of radioactive contamination. These days, there is a new Godzilla, but it has a positive—and entirely fact-based—association with nuclear energy. This one has emerged inside the Tokamak Assembly Preparation Building of ITER in southern France.
S. Cierjacks, Y. Hino, M. Drosg
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 106 | Number 2 | October 1990 | Pages 183-191
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE90-07
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A high-intensity, high-energy neutron source for fusion materials testing is proposed. Utilizing the 1H(t,n)3He neutron source reaction and bombarding a thick (totally absorbing) hydrogen-rich target with an intense beam of 21-MeV tritons provides a powerful continuous-energy-spectrum neutron source. The global spectrum of such a source is almost flat over the energy range from ∼1 to 14 MeV and exhibits a sharp energy cutoff level at 14.6 MeV. To meet near-term needs for fusion materials testing, a source concept is considered that involves multiple linear accelerator modules providing two 250-mA triton beams to bombard two water jet targets that face each other and irradiate the same test volume. Calculations of the source properties from well-established neutron production cross-section data for the 1H(t,n)3He reaction predict a test volume of 4.2 dm3 in which an average flux of ≥1 × 1014 n·cm-2·s-1 is achieved. The relevant properties of this source and the possibility of its realization, well within the limits of present technology, are discussed.