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Holtec hits milestones in Palisades restart, new reactor projects
Steam rises from the Palisades nuclear power plant. (Photo: Holtec International)
The restart of Palisades nuclear power plant in Covert, Mich., has hit a milestone with the passivation of its primary system, plant owner Holtec International announced Monday, even as a firm restart date has yet to be announced.
Passivation is a chemical process that improves corrosion resistance by making plant materials less reactive. During the process, the reactor’s primary system was brought to normal operating temperature and pressure. Holtec called this passivation phase an “essential step” in maintaining the long-term reliability of equipment.
Gary E. Rochau, Charles W. Morrow, Peter J. Pankuch
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 43 | Number 3 | May 2003 | Pages 447-455
Technical Paper | Fast Ignition Targets and Z-Pinch Concepts | doi.org/10.13182/FST03-A290
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Z-Pinch Power Plant (ZP-3) is the first concept to use the results at Sandia National Laboratories' Z accelerator in a power plant application. Assuming high-yield fusion pulses (of 1 to 20 GJ per shot at a rate of 0.1 Hz), we consider a unique shock and energy absorbing system to contain the energy. One concept answers the need for system standoff from the fusion reaction with a replaceable mechanical cartridge manufactured on-site. System studies suggest integrated blanket designs for absorbing the fusion energy, cartridge manufacture of recycled materials, and cartridge installation/replacement to maintain a reasonable duty cycle. An effective system design for ZP-3 requires an integrated blanket to shield the permanent structures from the high-energy neutron flux and strong shock wave, breed tritium, and simultaneously absorb the released fusion energy. We investigate the feasibility of this integrated blanket concept and explore the principles of a containment chamber - a crucible - and the containment mechanisms. An operational cycle is proposed to physically load hardware in 10-s intervals while maintaining operational conditions. Preliminary pressure and shock calculations demonstrate that high-yield inertial fusion energy pulses can be contained if the appropriate energy-absorbing materials are used.