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DOE approves Xcimer’s laser fusion power plant design
The Department of Energy has approved Xcimer Energy's Athena fusion power plant preconceptual technical design. With this milestone achieved, the Denver, Colo.-based company is now moving forward with its plans to develop economical laser inertial confinement fusion using two beamlines, gas laser technology, and a molten salt fusion chamber.
The National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory demonstrated net energy gain from inertial confinement fusion in 2022 using solid-state glass lasers and 192 beamlines.
Fujio Maekawa, Shin-ichiro Meigo, Yoshimi Kasugai, Hiroshi Takada, Takashi Ino, Setsuo Sato, Eric Jerde, David Glasgow, Koji Niita, Hiroshi Nakashima, Yukio Oyama, Yujiro Ikeda, Noboru Watanabe, Jerome Hastings, The ASTE Collaboration
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 150 | Number 1 | May 2005 | Pages 99-108
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE05-A2504
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A neutronic benchmark experiment on a simulated spallation neutron target assembly was conducted by using the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron at Brookhaven National Laboratory and was analyzed to investigate the prediction capability of Monte Carlo simulation codes used in neutronic designs of spallation neutron sources. The target assembly consisting of a mercury target, a light water moderator, and a lead reflector was bombarded by 1.94-, 12-, and 24-GeV protons, and the fast neutron flux distributions around the target and the spectra of thermal neutrons leaking from the moderator were measured in the experiment. In this study, the Monte Carlo particle transport simulation codes NMTC/JAM, MCNPX, and MCNP-4A with associated cross-section data in JENDL and LA-150 were verified based on benchmark analysis of the experiment. As a result, all the calculations predicted the measured quantities adequately; calculated integral fluxes of fast and thermal neutrons agreed approximately within ±40% with the experiments although the overall energy range encompassed more than 12 orders of magnitude. Accordingly, it was concluded that these simulation codes and cross-section data were adequate for neutronics designs of spallation neutron sources.