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Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
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Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2025)
February 3–6, 2025
Amelia Island, FL|Omni Amelia Island Resort
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Christmas Night
Twas the night before Christmas when all through the houseNo electrons were flowing through even my mouse.
All devices were plugged in by the chimney with careWith the hope that St. Nikola Tesla would share.
Jonathan Coburn, Mohamed Bourham
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 72 | Number 4 | November 2017 | Pages 692-698
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1352426
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Innovative materials are investigated using a simulated electrothermal (ET) plasma to characterize erosion characteristics under ITER-relevant off-normal conditions. The tungsten alternatives investigated are mono-crystalline silicon carbides and MAX Phase ceramics. Preliminary code simulations using the ETFLOW plasma code are presented to assess erosive behavior in preparation for future experiments at ORNL’s electrothermal high heat flux experiment and the DiMES experiments for induced disruption on the DIII-D tokamak. Results indicate that erosion properties for SiC and two commercially available MAX Phases, Ti3SiC2 and Ti2AlC, compare well with tungsten and other ITER relevant components. A material-specific ablation constant, measured as total mass removed per incident heat flux per second, serves as a means for directly comparing erosion properties. Tungsten possesses the highest ablation constant value when compared to carbon, beryllium and the alternative materials α-6H SiC, Ti3SiC2, and Ti2AlC. The ablation thickness, calculated from the ablation constant and the specific density of the material, provides a comparison of surface thickness lost during a given off-normal event. Carbon (4.25 cm3/MJ) and tungsten (5.98 cm3/MJ) possess the lowest values. The alternative materials Ti3SiC2 (7.32 cm3/MJ) and α-6H SiC (8.44 cm3/MJ) exhibit the next best values, with Ti2AlC being the least effective (9.35 cm3/MJ). SiC shows the best vapor shielding efficiency of the three alternative materials, with Ti3SiC2 and Ti2AlC giving similar efficiencies. Taking into account vapor shielding effects using both opacity and fractional models, SiC exhibits the best ablation characteristics of the three materials in terms of thickness loss, with Ti3SiC2 giving similar results and overall appearing the superior of the two MAX Phases.
