Engineering Papers⌕ Search

SEARCH · Engineering Papers

Results for “Nuclear Fusion”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 541 records · Page 30
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2022

Classification and Fusion of Two Disparate Data Streams and Nuclear Dissolutions Application

We consider two streams of data or measurements with disparate qualities and time resolutions that need to be classified. The first stream consists of higher quality data at a coarser time resolution, and the other consists of lower quality data at a finer time resolution. We present a fuser-switch method that fuses the set of classifiers of each stream separately and switches between them. We show that this method provides classification decisions at a finer time resolution with superior detection and false alarm probabilities compared to individual classifiers, under the statistical independence and time resolution ratio conditions. When classifiers are trained using machine learning methods, we show that this superior performance is guaranteed with a confidence probability specified by the classifiers' generalization equations. We use these results to provide analytical foundations for previous practical results that achieved significant performance improvements in classifying Pu/Np target dissolution events at a radiochemical processing facility.

Rao, Nageswara↗
DOE OSTI2023

New Generation Resources: Advanced Reactors, Fusion, Hydrogen

Decarbonization of the global economy in the near term necessarily focuses on current energy options for industrial and consumer applications. In addition, new carbon-free energy resources with higher power density are essential for a full energy transition and continued energy evolution (Smil 2021). In this article we examine opportunities and challenges to be addressed for advanced nuclear, hydrogen, and fusion energy.

McCarthy, Kathryn A.↗
DOE OSTI2021

Stellarators as a fast path to fusion

Herein this paper is focused on three points: (1) overcoming obstacles to tokamak power plants may require a configuration modification as large as that of a stellarator. (2) The demonstrated reliability of the computational design of stellarators should change fusion strategy. (3) Deployment of carbon-free energy sources is mandated by the thirty-year doubling of carbon dioxide emissions. Carbon-free energy options must be developed and fully deployed within a few doubling times. Unit size and cost of electricity are only relevant in comparison to alternative worldwide energy solutions. Intermittency, site specificity, waste management, and nuclear proliferation make fusion attractive as the basis for a carbon-free energy system compared to the alternatives. Nonetheless, fusion is not an option for deployment until a power plant has successfully operated. A critical element in a minimal time and risk program is the use of computational design as opposed to just extrapolation. Only the stellarator has an empirical demonstration of the reliable computational design through large changes in configuration properties and scale. The computational design of stellarators should proceed while the inventions necessary for a more tokamak-like power plant are sought. The cost of computational design is extremely small, but adequate time is required for the development of ideas that maximize attractiveness and minimize risk. Rapid power-plant construction without many intermediate steps may seem risky, but the price is small compared to the cost of trillions of dollars for each year's delay in addressing carbon-dioxide emissions.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2025

Proceedings for the Workshop on Applied Nuclear Data Activities 2025

The 2025 Workshop for Applied Nuclear Data Activities (WANDA) covered four topic areas in nuclear data: Nuclear Data and Deterrence, Nuclear Data Prioritization for Fusion, High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium and Novel Moderators for Advanced Reactors, and Data Preservation and Data Workflows. The intention of this workshop is to connect different communities that are invested in nuclear data and have their own unique sets of needs for the purposes of sharing information, fostering collaboration in areas of shared interest, and leveraging synergistic capabilities. The attendance of federal program managers at these workshops is essential in creating awareness of the needs of their respective communities and in providing information to better guide funding investments. In each of these topical sessions, a general description of the nuclear data needs and/or capabilities was presented, along with discussions of existing capabilities that could be leveraged, potential synergistic needs or resources, and challenges that must be overcome for the application space to progress. There are many synergistic nuclear data needs among these application spaces. The discussion largely focused on increasing the accuracy of the nuclear data and better quantifying the data uncertainties that have the greatest impact on applications. The full-day session on data processing and data workflows was by nature intended to be synergistic and applicable to all technical sessions at WANDA. A notable common theme that was highlighted across all sessions was the need for accelerated delivery of nuclear data products across complex and time-consuming workflows.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
NASA NTRS2001

Impact of Energy Gain and Subsystem Characteristics on Fusion Propulsion Performance

Rapid transport of large payloads and human crews throughout the solar system requires propulsion systems having very high specific impulse (I(sub sp) > 10(exp 4) to 10(exp 5) s). It also calls for systems with extremely low mass-power ratios (alpha < 10(exp -1) kg/kW). Such low alpha are beyond the reach of conventional power-limited propulsion, but may be attainable with fusion and other nuclear concepts that produce energy within the propellant. The magnitude of energy gain must be large enough to sustain the nuclear process while still providing a high jet power relative to the massive energy-intensive subsystems associated with these concepts. This paper evaluates the impact of energy gain and subsystem characteristics on alpha. Central to the analysis are general parameters that embody the essential features of any 'gain-limited' propulsion power balance. Results show that the gains required to achieve alpha = 10(exp -1) kg/kW with foreseeable technology range from approximately 100 to over 2000, which is three to five orders of magnitude greater than current fusion state of the arL Sensitivity analyses point to the parameters exerting the most influence for either: (1) lowering a and improving mission performance or (2) relaxing gain requirements and reducing demands on the fusion process. The greatest impact comes from reducing mass and increasing efficiency of the thruster and subsystems downstream of the fusion process. High relative gain, through enhanced fusion processes or more efficient drivers and processors, is also desirable. There is a benefit in improving driver and subsystem characteristics upstream of the fusion process, but it diminishes at relative gains > 100.

Chakrabarti, S.↗
DOE OSTI2026

USACA Spring Technical Meeting 2026

Overview slides of ceramic and material needs for nuclear technology along with a few other advanced manufacturing info slides on harsh material space.

11 - NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2025

ATOMIC AND MICROSTRUCTURAL ORIGINS OF STORED ENERGY RELEASE IN NEUTRON-IRRADIATED SILICON CARBIDE

Here, we employ a combination of advanced synchrotron-based scattering characterization techniques to understand and unravel the atomic origins of the colossal stored energy release in neutron irradiated silicon carbide. The quantification of the neutron irradiation-induced defects, and their impact on the structureproperty relationship is important for the design and safe operation of advanced fission and fusion reactors. Our experimental results show that the atomic structure in the as irradiated samples is significantly perturbed due to a large fraction of vacancy and interstitial type defects that lead to complex microstructures and additional components in the x-ray diffraction and pair distribution function results. We directly correlate the stored energy release to the recovery of the sub-lattices, with pair distribution function analysis highlighting that the carbon interstitial and vacancy-type defects contribute to stored energy more than those of silicon. We find these results to be striking and believe our discoveries to be timely and noteworthy given the technological importance of silicon carbide to the nuclear fission and fusion communities.

Sprouster, D.J.↗
DOE OSTI2024

3.0 - MOOSE: Enabling massively parallel multiphysics simulations

The development of MOOSE has kept accelerating since the last release, with over 2,100 pull requests merged over the last 30 months that involved nearly fifty contributors across close to a dozen institutions internationally. The growth in MOOSE's capabilities and downstream applications is reflected in the growth of the community. User support provided on the GitHub discussions forum has steadily increased to nearly 50 daily interactions. New simulation projects, notably to model advanced nuclear reactor and fusion devices, are driving a significant expansion of the capabilities. This paper reports on these developments, with several major released features, new physics modules, and key improvements to the user experience and simulation workflow.

22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Extension of Virtual Test Bed Advanced Modeling and Simulation Capabilities for Fusion Energy

The National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC) was established to accelerate the deployment of novel reactor concepts. This is achieved by providing physical and virtual spaces for building and testing reactor experiments. The Virtual Test Bed (VTB) represents the virtual counterpart to the physical test beds. It is a collaboration with the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Nuclear Energy Advanced Modeling and Simulation (NEAMS) program with the mission to accelerate the deployment of advanced reactors by facilitating the adoption of advanced modeling and simulation (M&S) tools developed by the DOE. This mission has been carried out by the VTB since 2020 by hosting and featuring dozens of advanced fission nuclear reactor models developed by national laboratories and academia. The charter of the NRIC’s definition of advanced reactors also includes fusion nuclear reactors. As the tools developed by the NEAMS program are increasingly used for modeling fusion energy devices, there is an increasing need to host fusion reactor models on the VTB repository. The VTB will be extended in 2024 to support fusion energy modeling and simulation.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2020

An electrochemical study of hydrogen in molten 2LiF-BeF 2 (FLiBe) with addition of LiH

The chemical and transport behavior of hydrogen isotopes in molten 2LiF-BeF 2 (FLiBe) is of interest for the design of tritium management systems in nuclear fission and fusion reactors that use FLiBe. The chemical reaction of LiH with FLiBe is used to introduce hydrogen in the molten salt and electrochemical methods are used for in situ studies of hydrogen in FLiBe. LiH reacts with molten FLiBe to generate an electroactive species whose voltammetry peak is proportional to the added quantity of LiH. The cyclic voltammetry reaction potential of 2.009 ± 0.050 V vs Be/Be 2+ and the electron exchange of n = 0.8 ± 0.5 are consistent with the one-electron oxidation of dissolved H in the zero valence state, H o to H + . The concentration of H o is estimated by linear sweep voltammetry at 60–80% of the hydrogen introduced by the reaction of 0.42 mol% LiH with FLiBe and after eleven hours it remains above 40%. It is postulated that covalent BeH 2 is formed in FLiBe upon LiH addition, as a FLiBe-soluble quasi-stable intermediate product. Furthermore, the results provide an evaluation of LiH as a means of introducing dissolved hydrogen in FLiBe, enabling electrochemical methods as tools to advance the understanding of the chemistry of hydrogen isotopes in FLiBe.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Effects of fast and thermal neutron irradiation on Ga-polar and N-polar GaN diodes

Studies of the radiation tolerance and electrical behavior of gallium nitride (GaN) based devices are important for the next generation of high-power and high-voltage electronics that may be subjected to harsh environments such as nuclear reactor and fusion facilities, particle accelerators, and post-denotation environments. Here, in this work, we study the behavior of Ga-polar and N-polar GaN Schottky diodes before and after exposure to fast and thermal + fast neutrons. Temperature-dependent current–voltage (I–V) and circular transmission line method (CTLM) measurements were used to study the electrical characteristics. A strong reduction in reverse leakage current and an increase in differential resistance in forward bias were observed after neutron irradiation. Thermionic emission (TE), Frenkel–Poole (FP) emission, and Fowler–Nordheim (FN) tunneling models were used to explain the forward and reverse I–V characteristics pre- and post-irradiation. The study confirms that Ga-polar and N-polar GaN Schottky diodes exhibit different electrical responses to fast and thermal neutron irradiations. The reverse bias characteristics of N-polar diodes are less affected after the fast neutron irradiation compared to Ga-polar diodes, while in the forward bias region, the electrical behavior after fast and thermal neutron irradiations is similar in Ga-polar and N-polar diodes. The results indicate that the role of orientation should be considered in the design of GaN-based radiation-tolerant electronics.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Transmission electron microscopy with in-situ ion irradiation: Facilities and community

Whilst there is a clear scientific and technological need for the technical capabilities of transmission electron microscopes with in-situ ion irradiation, it also requires a collaborative community of international researchers to support such facilities in successfully meeting this demand. Instruments of this type serve to provide fundamental understanding of the mechanisms which drive changes in materials important to nuclear fission and fusion energy, the semiconductor industry, quantum information systems, space travel, astronomy, geology and many more applications. As these areas continue to evolve and the instrumentation possibilities expand, the capacity of in-situ ion irradiation facilities must also develop hand-in-hand with the user community to deliver an ever-greater diversity of high-fidelity extreme-environment experimentation. Future directions for the field, such as miniaturization from MEMS/microfluidic devices and advanced controls with ML-based analysis, continuously emerge to advance both the hardware and software which support the coupling of TEMs with ion beams. This review sets out to provide up-to-date insights into the community and advancement of current, and development of future, facilities which have the potential to further unlock access to the nanoscale exploration of coupled extreme environments crucial to many of the important science and engineering challenges we face today.

In-situ irradiation↗
DOE OSTI2020

Microstructure and fracture toughness characterization of three 9Cr ODS EUROFER steels with different thermo-mechanical treatments

Ferritic martensitic ODS steels are one of the candidate structural materials for future Gen-IV nuclear fission and fusion reactors. Here, the dependence of fracture toughness on microstructure was investigated by comparing three 9Cr ODS EUROFER steels manufactured through different thermo-mechanical processing routes. Quasi-static fracture toughness testing was performed with sub-sized C(T) specimens and microstructural characterization was carried out using scanning electron microscopy, electron backscatter diffraction, and transmission electron microscopy. It was found that at lower test temperatures (-100 – 22 °C), the fracture toughness was primarily controlled by crack initiation at sub-micron particles and by production of secondary cracks during fracture. At higher temperatures (above 100 °C), fracture toughness was predominantly controlled by the matrix ductility and the grain boundary strength with a relatively ductile coarse-grained alloy demonstrating higher fracture toughness compared to high-strength fine-grained alloys. These results and discussion show that variations in thermomechanical treatments can produce significant differences in microstructure and fracture toughness behavior of ferritic martensitic ODS steels.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2025

Cryogenically enhanced quasi-optical resonator for megawatt pulsed millimeter-wave sources

We report the design, cryogenic optimization, and performance modeling of a compact quasi-optical ring resonator intended to compress microwaves pulses at 170 and 250 GHz to the megawatt level. By combining ultra-low-loss CVD diamond and gold-doped silicon wafers with high-RRR copper mirrors, the calculated unloaded quality factor exceeds 4.3 × 10 5 at 20 K and yields simulated gains up to $\mathscr{G}$ = 4.1 × 10 3 . Coupling the resonator with a laser-driven semiconductor switch described by an extended Vogel model shows that 1 MW, nanosecond pulses can be generated from only 445 W of microwave drive power while dissipating 272 W into the cryostat. A practical cooling architecture using two Gifford–McMahon stages (20 and 80 K) is proposed, demonstrating that high-repetition-rate (10–20 kHz) operation is feasible with commercially available cryocoolers. The results outline a clear path toward cost-effective, table-top sources for extreme-ultraviolet lithography, dynamic nuclear polarization, and fusion systems.

Panisset, Constant [Ecole Polytechnique Federale L↗