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Fusion research tackles fuel and instrumentation challenges
Three research groups are reporting fusion-related developments, including ongoing work toward spin-polarized fusion, a new plasma diagnostic tool heading to the National Ignition Facility, and a materials science project that could impact the design of inertial confinement fusion fuel targets.
B. Hollrah, M. Bucknor, D. Lisowski, Y. Hassan, R. Vaghetto, R. Hu
Nuclear Technology | Volume 206 | Number 9 | September 2020 | Pages 1337-1350
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2020.1745039
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Natural convection systems are a promising method to passively remove heat from reactor cavities during loss of forced flow accident scenarios. At Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), a highly instrumented Natural Convection Shutdown Heat Removal Test Facility (NSTF) was used to demonstrate the effectiveness of air-cooled natural convection systems. In previous work, RELAP5-3D simulations were performed on this facility with favorable comparisons to experiment for mass flow rate, pressure drop, air temperature increase, and air velocity. Both experimental and simulation efforts with this facility present a useful opportunity to perform a benchmark study with the System Analysis Module (SAM). SAM is an advanced thermal-hydraulic system code currently in development at ANL for advanced non–light water reactor safety analysis.