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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
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.
Jun-Yun Yang, Xiao Gang, Yang-Jun Ying
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 182 | Number 4 | April 2016 | Pages 538-554
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE15-44
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A code called CriSAA used for criticality excursion evaluation and analysis is developed by coupling a two-dimensional thermal-hydraulic code and a zero-dimensional neutron kinetics code. The generalized semi-Markov process simulation method is improved in the neutron kinetics code, which makes it suitable for the transient cases of both stochastic and intense neutron fields. Pulse withdrawal experiments and ramp feed experiments performed on the Transient Experiment Critical Facility (TRACY) are simulated with CriSAA. The transient characteristics of isolated and open criticality excursions on TRACY are studied. The simulation fits well with the experiments. Stochastic phenomena of the criticality excursions under a weak source case are studied. The statistics characteristics, including time and energy to first peak, power of first peak, and total energy, are shown. This work provides an advanced approach for criticality excursion evaluation and analysis.