About 10% of Jordan’s gross domestic product is spent on health care, almost one-third of which is spent on pharmaceuticals. Jordan’s pharmaceutical spending is a substantially higher percentage of ...gross domestic product than that of other developed countries. Generic substitution is a mechanism that could lower pharmaceutical spending costs in Jordan, but Jordan’s domestic law currently forbids pharmacists in the private market from dispensing generic equivalents to branded medicines without a physician’s approval. This article provides the results of a study that surveyed prominent organizational stakeholders (n = 17, RR 100%) in Jordan’s health care system and evaluates their opinions about generic substitution. The study finds there is a broad base of support for allowing and encouraging generic substitution in the private sector, and for mandating generic substitution in the public sector. Given that generic substitution may help to reduce health care costs and improve access to medicines, policymakers should consider legal and policy changes to facilitate generic substitution. The research suggests that key players in Jordan’s health care system will support such proposals.
This paper presents an overview and a few point designs for multiple-reheat helium Brayton cycle power conversion systems using molten salts (or liquid metals or direct helium cooling). All designs ...are derived from the General Atomics GT-MHR power conversion unit (PCU). The important role of compact, offset fin heat exchangers for heat transfer to the power cycle helium, and the potential for these to be fabricated from carbon-coated composite materials that would have lower potential for fouling, are discussed. Specific links are made to the ITER TBM and laser IFE blanket design, and to Z-Pinch/HIF thick-liquid IFE.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is currently developing a hybrid fusion-fission nuclear energy system, called LIFE, to generate power and burn nuclear waste. We utilize inertial confinement ...fusion to drive a subcritical fission blanket surrounding the fusion chamber. It is composed of TRISO-based fuel cooled by the molten salt flibe. Low-yield (37.5 MJ) targets and a repetition rate of 13.3 Hz produce a 500 MW fusion source that is coupled to the subcritical blanket, which provides an additional gain of 4-8, depending on the fuel.
In the present work, we describe the neutron transport and nuclear burnup analysis. We utilize standard analysis tools including, the Monte Carlo N-Particle (MCNP) transport code, ORIGEN2 and Monte burns to perform the nuclear design. These analyses focus primarily on a fuel composed of depleted uranium not requiring chemical reprocessing or enrichment. However, other fuels such as weapons grade plutonium and highly-enriched uranium are also under consideration. In addition, we have developed a methodology using
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Li as a burnable poison to replace the tritium burned in the fusion targets and to maintain constant power over the lifetime of the engine. The results from depleted uranium analyses suggest up to 99% burnup of actinides is attainable while maintaining full power at 2GW for more than five decades.
The dispersion and control of liquid kinetic energy and momentum are a major issue after the explosion of targets in an inertial fusion energy (IFE) thick-liquid chamber. For HYLIFE-type IFE chambers ...the desired repetition rate for shots varies from 5 to 10 Hz—a rate much too fast for natural gravity clearing of liquid debris. The impulse load delivered by a single shot generates enough kinetic energy in disrupted liquid material to do significant damage to surrounding solid structures. However, carefully designed jet arrays with regular void spacing can diffuse and dissipate kinetic energy that could damage adjacent structures, and rapidly moving, oscillating jets can dynamically clear the chamber center. A brief theoretical and mathematical background is given for this method of shock abatement, using the current Berkeley jet array experiment as a representative geometry.
Left unprotected, both transmissive and reflective final optics in a laser inertial fusion power plant would quickly fail from melting, pulsed thermal stresses, or degradation of optical properties ...as a result of ion implantation. One potential option for mitigating this threat is to magnetically deflect the ions such that they are directed into a robust energy dump. In this paper we detail integrated studies that have been carried out to assess the viability of this approach for protecting final optics.
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