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Division Spotlight
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
Meeting Spotlight
Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
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
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.”
A. Hassanein, J. P. Allain, Z. Insepov, I. Konkashbaev
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 47 | Number 3 | April 2005 | Pages 686-697
Technical Paper | Fusion Energy - Divertor and Plasma-Facing Components | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A765
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
One of the critical technological challenges of future tokamak fusion devices is the ability for plasma-facing components to handle both normal and abnormal plasma/surface interaction events that compromise their lifetime and operation of the machine. Under normal operation plasma/surface interactions that are important include: sputtering, particle implantation and recycling, He pumping and ELM (edge localized modes)-induced erosion. In abnormal or off-normal operation: disruptions and vertical displacement events (VDEs) are important. To extend PFC lifetime under these conditions, liquid-metals have been considered as candidate PFCs (Plasma-Facing Components), including: liquid lithium, tin-lithium, gallium and tin.Liquid lithium has been measured to have nonlinear increase of physical sputtering with rise in temperature. Such increase can be a result of exposure to ELM-level particle fluxes. The significant increase in particle flux to the divertor and nearby PFCs can enhance sputtering erosion by an order of magnitude or more. In addition from the standpoint of hydrogen recycling and helium pumping liquid lithium appears to be a good candidate plasma-facing material (PFM). Advanced designs of first wall and divertor systems propose the application of liquid-metals as an alternate PFC to contend with high-heat flux constraints of large-scale tokamak devices. Additional issues include PFC operation under disruptions and long temporal instabilities such as VDEs. A comprehensive two-fluid model is developed to integrate core and SOL (scrape-off layer) parameters during ELMs with PFC surface evolution using the HEIGHTS package. Special emphasis is made on the application of lithium as a candidate plasma-facing liquid-metal.