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2026 Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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Latest News
Thea Energy releases preconceptual plans for Helios fusion power plant
Fusion technology company Thea Energy announced this week that it has completed the preconceptual design of its fusion power plant, called Helios. According to the company, Helios is “the first stellarator fusion power plant architecture that is realistic to build and operate with hardware that is available today, and that is tolerant to the rigors of manufacturing, construction, long-term operation, and maintenance of a commercial device.”
Weikai Gao, Xiaowei Li, Xinxin Wu, Jiaqing Zhao, Yiyang Zhang, Xiaowei Luo (Tsinghua Univ)
Proceedings | 2018 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2018) | Charlotte, NC, April 8-11, 2018 | Pages 1193-1198
High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor usually adopts helical tube bundles for its heat transfer equipment (steam generator or intermediate heat exchanger). The geometrical arrangement of helical tube bundles determines its thermal hydraulic performances. The flow attack angles between the tube axes of helical tubes and the fluid flow directions are smaller than 90 degrees, which is introduced by the inclination of the helical tubes due to upward winding. Except for the parameters of tube diameter, helical diameter, longitudinal pitches, transverse pitches and inclination angles, the inclination direction (or winding direction) of neighboring layers of helical tubes also influences the thermal hydraulic performances. The opposite sense inclination effect is numerically investigated. A three dimensional model having 5 layers of straight tubes with opposite sense inclination of neighboring layers is established. Standard k-? model was used for the turbulence modeling. The velocity and temperature field were investigated. Special attention is paid on the opposite sense inclination effect on pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient. The results show that the opposite sense inclination will lower the heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop coefficient, which coincides with the measured results.