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NN Asks: What hurdles stand in the way of nuclear power’s global expansion?
Jake Jurewicz
Nuclear technology is mature. It provides firm power at scale with minimal externalities and has done so for decades. The core problem isn’t about the technology—it is how the plants are built. Nuclear construction has a well-documented history of cost and schedule overruns. Previous nuclear plants often spent more than twice what was first budgeted, making nuclear among the power technologies with the largest average cost overruns worldwide.
Recent projects illustrate how severe the problem can be. In South Carolina, the V.C. Summer nuclear expansion saw projected costs rise from roughly $10 billion to more than $25 billion before the project was abandoned in 2017, by which time more than $9 billion had already been spent and customers were stuck paying for a site they have yet to benefit from.
Lance L. Snead, Roger A. Vesey†
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 24 | Number 1 | August 1993 | Pages 83-96
Technical Paper | Divertor System | doi.org/10.13182/FST93-A30176
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The primary concerns in the design of a divertor component are the high heat fluxes (15 to 30 MW/m2) and the surface erosion due to plasma/wall interactions, along with the associated issue of plasma contamination. A continuous belt, which would pass between two rollers inside the vacuum vessel, is proposed as the divertor surface to provide higher heat flux handling capability as well as reduced total erosion. Thermal analyses indicate that a belt passing from one roller through the divertor region to a cooling roller can achieve a cycle-to-cycle steady state while maintaining acceptable temperatures. The belt speed determines the amount of plasma energy absorbed per cycle and thus determines the maximum belt temperature and the requirements of the cooling roller. The belt material initially considered is a metal matrix/carbon fiber composite in which the carbon fibers are oriented out-of-plane in a 1-mm-thick metal belt. The carbon fibers protrude from the plasma-facing side of the belt, presenting the plasma ions a low-Z surface to impact. Because the belt surf ace passes through the entire divertor region, the erosion due to sputtering is uniform along the belt. Estimated gross erosion rates for a 7-m belt at expected International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) conditions are 5 to 10 cm/burn-yr. Electromagnetic forces and secondary magnetic fields induced by the belt motion appear manageable for a sufficiently resistive or toroidally segmented belt. In situ deposition of a sacrificial carbon layer will be required to replace eroded material. Such a belt also offers the possibility of continuous removal of the plasma-codeposited carbon and tritium layer prior to deposition of the sacrificial carbon.