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DOE, INL, Kairos talk nuclear energy at Senate committee hearing
It has been 10 months since President Trump signed several executive orders that have reshaped the nuclear energy industry and set lofty goals for initiatives like the development and deployment of new nuclear technology.
One such initiative, the DOE’s Nuclear Reactor Pilot Program, calls for at least 3 of the 11 reactors in the program to achieve criticality by July 4, 2026. Some have questioned whether this target is feasible.
Kunihiko Tomiyasu, Kai Yokoyama, Kunihito Yamauchi, Masato Watanabe, Akitoshi Okino, Eiki Hotta
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 56 | Number 2 | August 2009 | Pages 967-971
Plasma Engineering | Eighteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Part 2) | doi.org/10.13182/FST09-A9035
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In order to evaluate the effect of cusp magnetic field in the cylindrical Radially Convergent Beam Fusion (RCBF) device, four kinds of experimental setups were examined. The maximum Neutron Production Rate (NPR) of 7.4 x 109 n/s was obtained at -80 kV and 15 A. As a result of the theoretical evaluation of fusion regimes in the RCBF device, the NPR normalized by the cathode current and the gas pressure was compared between the setups. The experimental data showed that the normalized NPR is highly correlated with the gas pressure, and it was independent of the setups. As the gas pressure decreased, the normalized NPR was increased. Hence, the present study suggests that the effect of the cusp magnetic field is to achieve lower pressure operation which improves the normalized NPR. The numerical estimation became in agreement with the experimental result by introducing an adjusting factor which was highly correlated with the pressure. The difference of the pressure is expected to affect some factors, such as an effective cathode transparency.