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August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
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Latest News
Vogtle-3 shuts down for valve issue
One of the new Vogtle units in Georgia was shut down unexpectedly on Monday last week for a valve issue that has since been investigated and repaired. According to multiple local news outlets, Georgia Power reported on July 17 that Unit 3 was back in service.
Southern Company spokesperson Jacob Hawkins confirmed that Vogtle-3 went off line at 9:25 p.m. local time on July 8 “due to lowering water levels in the steam generators caused by a valve issue on one of the three main feedwater pumps.”
Dale M. Meade
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 39 | Number 2 | March 2001 | Pages 336-342
Fusion Technology Plenary | doi.org/10.13182/FST01-A11963257
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Experiments are needed to test and extend present understanding of confinement, macroscopic stability, alpha-driven instabilities, and particle/power exhaust in plasmas dominated by alpha heating. A design study of a Fusion Ignition Research Experiment (FIRE) is underway to assess near term opportunities for producing and studying fusion dominated plasmas in the laboratory. The emphasis is on understanding the behavior of fusion plasmas dominated by alpha heating (Q ≥ 5) that are sustained for a duration comparable to the characteristic plasma time scales (≥ 20 τE and ~ 1.5 τskin, where τskin is the time for the plasma current profile to redistribute at fixed current). These requirements can be satisfied with BeCu/OFHC toroidal field coils and OFHC poloidal coils that are pre-cooled to 77 °K prior to the pulse. The plasma facing components will have tungsten divertor plates and Be first wall tiles. No graphite is allowed inside the vacuum vessel due to tritium retention issues. The mission of FIRE is to attain, explore, understand and optimize alpha-dominated plasmas to provide knowledge for the design of attractive magnetic fusion energy systems. The programmatic strategy is to access the alpha-heating-dominated regime with confidence using the present advanced tokamak data base (e.g., Elmy-H-mode, ≤ 0.75 Greenwald density) while maintaining the flexibility for accessing and exploring other advanced tokamak modes (e. g., reversed shear, pellet enhanced performance) at lower magnetic fields and fusion power for longer durations in later stages of the experimental program. A major constraint is to develop a design concept that could meet these physics objectives with a construction cost in the range of $1B.