. Space Industry and Business News .




.
ENERGY TECH
New probe to uncover mechanisms key to fusion reactor walls
by Emil Venere
West Lafayette, IN (SPX) Aug 26, 2011

Purdue is working with researchers in the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, which operates the nation's largest spherical tokamak reactor, known as the National Spherical Torus Experiment. The machines are ideal for materials testing.

A new tool developed by nuclear engineers at Purdue University will be hitched to an experimental fusion reactor at Princeton University to learn precisely what happens when extremely hot plasmas touch and interact with the inner surface of the reactor.

The work is aimed at understanding plasma-wall interactions to help develop coatings or materials capable of withstanding the grueling conditions inside fusion reactors, known as tokamaks. The machines house a magnetic field to confine a donut-shaped plasma of deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen.

Fusion powers the stars and could lead to a limitless supply of clean energy. A fusion power plant would produce 10 times more energy than a conventional nuclear fission reactor, and because the deuterium fuel is contained in seawater, a fusion reactor's fuel supply would be virtually inexhaustible.

"One of the biggest challenges for thermonuclear magnetic fusion is understanding how plasma in the fusion reactor modifies the inner wall," said Jean Paul Allain, an associate professor of nuclear engineering. "This is a big unknown because now we can't see what happens in real time to the wall surfaces."

Purdue is working with researchers in the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, which operates the nation's largest spherical tokamak reactor, known as the National Spherical Torus Experiment. The machines are ideal for materials testing.

The materials analysis particle probe, or MAPP, will be connected to the underside of the tokamak. The students custom designed the probe to be small enough to fit under the reactor.

"This was an engineering feat to fit a suite of instruments in a package only a few feet tall," Allain said. "It's a miniature materials characterization facility that will allow for a direct correlation between the plasma behavior and its interaction with an evolving wall material surface."

A major challenge in finding the right coatings to line fusion reactors is that the material changes due to extreme conditions inside the reactors, where temperatures reach millions of degrees. Scientists have historically used "wall conditioning," or applying thin films of materials to induce changes to plasma behavior.

"But it's been primarily an Edisonian approach," Allain said. "We don't know what mechanisms are primarily at work, and we need to if we are going to perfect fusion as an energy technology."

The probe will provide information about how the coating materials evolve under plasma conditions and how the interaction correlates with changes in the plasma itself. Data from the instrument will help researchers develop innovative materials for the reactor vessel lining.

"Currently we don't have the materials needed to sustain these large plasma and thermal fluxes," he said. "Some completely break down and melt. We need to understand how to operate and control the wall itself and the plasma together as they interacting." The effects of plasma on surface materials is now analyzed by removing test specimens from the lining after a year of running the reactor.

Allain's group has worked with researchers at Purdue's Birck Nanotechnology Center to analyze tiles used in the Princeton tokamak. This approach shows only the cumulative results of hundreds of experiments, whereas scientists would prefer seeing the fine details associated with individual experiments.

"That's what this new probe can do," he said. "It's a new type of surface-analysis diagnostic system designed to be integrated in a tokamak."

The probe will allow scientists to study how specific materials interact with the plasma and yield data within minutes after completing an experiment. Data from the analyses would be used to validate computational models and guide design of new materials.

The project is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy through the DOE's Office of Fusion Energy Sciences.

The lead graduate student in the project is Bryan Heim, who has worked with Allain since he was a junior in undergraduate research. Additional students involved in the work are nuclear engineering students: doctoral students Zhangcan Yang and Chase Taylor, senior Sean Gonderman, junior Miguel Gonzalez, and seniors Sami Ortoleva and Eric Collins.

Heim and Gonderman are spending six weeks at Princeton this summer to set up the instrument. Details of the MAPP system and its capabilities were presented recently during the 24th Symposium on Fusion Engineering in Chicago and the 38th International Conference on Plasma Science chaired by Purdue's School of Nuclear Engineering head Ahmed Hassanein. The work will be published in a special issue of the IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science next year.

"The device is completely remote controlled, in principle from anywhere in the world," Allain said.

Researchers might be able to access the instrument using nanoHUB.com, based at Purdue.

"We will have a remote-control GUI software, and people will be able to use it online, working with a partner at Princeton," Allain said. "Therefore, someone from overseas will have the opportunity to use MAPP without leaving their home institution."

The Materials Analysis Particle Probe (MAPP) Diagnostic System in NSTX Bryan Heim, S. Gonderman, C.N Taylor, J.P Allain, E. Yang, M. Gonzalez, E. Collins Purdue University C.H. Skinner, B. Ellis, W. Blanchard, L. Roquemore, H.W Kugel, R. Martin Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory




Related Links
-
Powering The World in the 21st Century at Energy-Daily.com

.
Get Our Free Newsletters Via Email
...
Buy Advertising Editorial Enquiries








. Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle



ENERGY TECH
Fusion diagnostic developed at PPPL sheds light on plasma behavior at EAST
Princeton NJ (SPX) Aug 08, 2011
An instrument developed by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) has enabled a research team at a fusion energy experiment in China to observe--in startling detail--how a particular type of electromagnetic wave known as a radiofrequency (RF) wave affects the behavior of hot ionized gas. In the experiment at EAST (the Experimental Advanced ... read more


ENERGY TECH
Steve Jobs a product wizard: Wozniak

Production shifts to China for rare earths

Fukushima caesium leaks 'equal 168 Hiroshimas'

Melanin's 'trick' for maintaining radioprotection studied

ENERGY TECH
"Network in A Box" Allows Military Vehicles To Be Used For Multiple Missions

Space Command retires workhorse satellite

Raytheon Develops Miniature Antenna To Extend Millimeter Wave Friendly ID Technology

China launches another experimental satellite

ENERGY TECH
Russia grounds rockets after launch failure

Russia loses contact with new satellite

China successfully launches maritime satellite

NASA selects Virgin Galactic for Suborbital Flights

ENERGY TECH
Researchers Improving GPS Accuracy In The Third Dimension

ASA Search and Rescue Software Used To Locate Capsized Boat Off Ireland

Software said to improve GPS accuracy

Two SOPS calls on reliable spare for active service

ENERGY TECH
Philippine Airlines lays off ground staff

Air New Zealand earnings plunge after disasters

Air disaster narrowly averted in China: report

U.S., Russian firms in distribution deal

ENERGY TECH
New nanoscale parameter by Aalto University resolves dilemmas on silicon property

Berkeley Lab scientists unveil an X-ray technique called HARPES

Etch-a-sketch with superconductors

Taking inspiration from spilled milk

ENERGY TECH
NASA Satellites Detect Pothole on Road to Higher Seas

Elbit To Supply Asian Countries with Electro-Optical Payloads for Maritime Applications

TRMM gets a look at Irene, the first hurricane of the Atlantic season

e2v supply the imaging sensor focal plane to SSTL UK for the NigeriaSat-2 Earth observation satellite

ENERGY TECH
Greenpeace finds toxic chemicals in branded clothing

Greenpeace Copenhagen gatecrashers get wrists slapped

Second chemical leak at Australian plant

New device exposes explosive vapors


Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily Express :: SpaceWar Express :: TerraDaily Express :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News
.

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2011 - Space Media Network. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement