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Materials Science & Technology
The objectives of MSTD are: promote the advancement of materials science in Nuclear Science Technology; support the multidisciplines which constitute it; encourage research by providing a forum for the presentation, exchange, and documentation of relevant information; promote the interaction and communication among its members; and recognize and reward its members for significant contributions to the field of materials science in nuclear technology.
Meeting Spotlight
Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2025)
February 3–6, 2025
Amelia Island, FL|Omni Amelia Island Resort
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
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.
Yannick Nicolas Hörstensmeyer, Silvano Tosti, Alessia Santucci, Giacomo Bruni
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 76 | Number 3 | April 2020 | Pages 232-237
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2019.1705690
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Palladium alloy permeators are foreseen for the retrieval of hydrogen in the fusion fuel cycle of the European DEMO power plant. Driven by a pressure gradient, unburned fuel permeates through a thin-walled metallic membrane within the permeator while other gases cannot pass this barrier. With a theoretically unlimited selectivity with regard to nonhydrogenic species, a very high proportion of unburned fuel can be recovered in a continuous process from the exhaust gas and reused after a very short time. A potential candidate for the design of such a permeator consists of a tube (l = 500 mm, d = 10 mm) with a 125-μm-thick, self-supporting membrane made of a palladium-silver alloy all combined in the shape of a so-called finger-type design. A two-stage process then connects several of these permeators in parallel and in series to match the required throughput of DEMO during plasma operation at a given degree of separation. As the first design point in the scope of the current preconceptual design phase, a model was developed using the commercial software ASPEN Custom Modeler to estimate important parameters such as the tritium inventory and the scale of the permeator unit. How the hydrogen pressure profile is calculated over the length of a permeator using the Sieverts’ Law and the Finite Volume Method is thoroughly described. As a result, the integral performance of the combined permeators is presented as well as all important boundary conditions and assumptions that led to it. For the current DEMO baseline scenario, the total number of permeators of the abovementioned shape is found to be about 50.