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PJM queues a fusion project among 810 others
The breakdown by number of projects, share of megawatts, and generation types in PJM’s new interconnection cycle. (Source: PJM Interconnection)
On April 27, PJM Interconnection closed its first full interconnection cycle since 2022. Under a reformed application process, 811 developers submitted generation projects capable of generating 220 gigawatts of electricity. About 400 megawatts of that total share comes from Commonwealth Fusion Systems, which submitted an application for its ARC fusion power plant. This is a notable milestone for the industry: it is the first time a developer has requested to connect a commercial fusion power plant to a major grid.
J. Mao, V. Vishwakarma, Z. Welker, C. K. Tai, I. A. Bolotnov, V. Petrov, A. Manera
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 198 | Number 7 | July 2024 | Pages 1404-1425
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2023.2241800
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To provide computational fluid dynamics (CFD)–grade experimental data for studying stratification, measurements on the High-Resolution Jet (HiRJet) facility at the University of Michigan have been conducted with density differences of and , respectively. Fluid with a density different from the fluid initially present in the HiRJet tank was injected, and the propagation of the time-dependent density stratification was captured on a two-dimensional plane with the aid of the wire-mesh sensor technique for Reynolds numbers near 5000 and Richardson numbers near 0.29. Direct numerical simulations (DNSs) of the two cases have also been conducted to expand the multifidelity database. The novel experimental and DNS data were then used to assess the predictive capabilities of the Standard (SKE) model and the Reynolds Stress Transport (RST) model. In particular, the propagation speed and thickness of the stratification fronts were assessed by comparing the CFD results against the experimental and DNS data. It was found that the general trends of the stratified density fronts were well predicted by the CFD simulations; however, slight overprediction of the thickness of the stratification layer was found with the SKE model while the RST model gave a larger overprediction of the mixing. Examination of the turbulent statistics showed that the turbulent viscosity was largely overpredicted by the RST model compared to the SKE model.