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Wendelstein 7-X designing 2-MW gyrotrons to upgrade heating system
The Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) announced yesterday that it is developing 2-MW gyrotrons to be used as the main plasma heating system of the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X).
W7-X, located at IPP, is currently the largest superconducting stellarator facility in the world. The project conducts research aimed at filling key knowledge and technology gaps for developing a stellarator-based power plant.
Abdalla Abou-Jaoude, Samuel A. Walker, Sandesh Bhaskar, Wei Ji
Nuclear Technology | Volume 207 | Number 12 | December 2021 | Pages 1821-1841
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2020.1843954
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Molten-salt reactors will likely require some level of irradiation testing as part of their licensing basis. An ideal experiment would consider the integrated effect of neutron flux and fission product generation in addition to circulating flow conditions. The feasibility of a natural-circulation irradiation salt loop in the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) is assessed here. The flow is induced by the innovative combination of gas gaps and fin gaps along the capsule wall to fine-tune radial heat conductance, and therefore drive an axial temperature gradient across the experiment height. Following multiple design optimizations, a promising configuration has been identified. The 45-kW experiment would generate a 0.15 m/s flow velocity with 6 kg of fuel-bearing salt. This demonstrates the possibility of generating appreciable flow rates within manageable experimental conditions (e.g., total size and heat generation). An initial assessment of species mass tracking inside the experiment was also performed to gain an understanding of radionuclide behavior within the system. Results showed that significant quantities of Xe can be extracted in the off-gas (1.7 kCi) for an 8% bubble removal efficiency rate. These results highlight the potential value of such experiments. Further work will involve detailed engineering drawings and analyses of the loop, as well as more computationally expensive modeling of species mass tracking.