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Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Norway’s Halden reactor takes first step toward decommissioning
The government of Norway has granted the transfer of the Halden research reactor from the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) to the state agency Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning (NND). The 25-MWt Halden boiling water reactor operated from 1958 to 2018 and was used in the research of nuclear fuel, reactor internals, plant procedures and monitoring, and human factors.
T. E. Gebhart, S. K. Combs, L. R. Baylor
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 73 | Number 1 | January 2018 | Pages 25-33
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1372683
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Future large tokamaks, such as ITER, will require a reliable technique for rapid energy dissipation to mitigate harmful effects from disruptions. Two main methods developed for disruption mitigation are massive gas injection and shattered pellet injection (SPI). Argon and neon are favorable materials for both injection methods. When launching pellets with SPI, it has proven difficult to launch intact pellets of pure argon and/or neon owing to their high material strength at cryogenic temperatures. In this work, we compare two methods of launching relatively high-Z pellets. An electrothermal plasma source is an experimental alternative to the fast opening, high-pressure, gas valve. The electrothermal source was used to launch Lexan™ pellets with approximately the same size and mass of comparable mixed gas (D2 and Ne) cryogenic pellets launched by gas guns. We describe comparisons of achieved pellet velocities, energy efficiencies of each system, and the implications of implementing each respective method on an operating tokamak.