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August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
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BWXT will scout potential TRISO fuel production sites in Wyoming
BWX Technologies Inc. announced today that its Advanced Technologies subsidiary has signed a cooperation agreement with the state of Wyoming to evaluate locations and requirements for siting a potential new TRISO nuclear fuel fabrication facility in the state.
Peter S. Martini, Ronald J. Onega
Nuclear Technology | Volume 36 | Number 3 | December 1977 | Pages 285-293
Technical Paper | Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT77-A31942
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The accumulation of impurities in a controlled thermonuclear reactor makes steady-state operation unlikely. The energy output during the burn phase will depend on the ion temperatures and densities. A dynamic model of the burn cycle of a tokamak is used to investigate the ion densities and temperatures as a function of time. The total energy output per cycle is investigated as a function of the ion feed rates, plasma current, and the divertor efficiency. The point-kinetics model of the plasma incorporates ion and energy balance equations and explicitly accounts for the impurity ion buildup. The D-D, D-T, and D-3He reactions are all considered in this model. The energy carried off by the neutrons in the D-D and D-T reactions is lost from the plasma. Impurities enter the plasma as a result of wall interactions with escaping ions and neutrons. The trapped-ion mode is used for calculating the confinement times. An equilibrium state vector was obtained using currently projected operating parameters. The total energy density for a burn cycle was found to be a monotonically increasing function of the source rates and the plasma current. The energy density was not substantially increased until the divertor efficiency was greater than ∼60% when the other parameters were held constant.