The operation of floating nuclear power units in nonnuclear-weapon states does not involve the management of fresh and used nuclear fuel, and the nuclear reactor of the power unit must be ...hermetically sealed in the manufacturing state. In relation to this, a challenging aspect of the application of the IAEA safeguards is the independent verification and confirmation of the state’s information regarding the declared operating modes of the nuclear power unit and the quality and quantity of nuclear fuel used to this end. The currently available technologies for detecting reactor antineutrinos are shown to be capable of providing the IAEA with independent control of a floating power unit reactor; a standalone mobile or stationary neutrino detector may be used to confirm the declared operating modes of the reactor and indirectly confirm the quantity and quality of nuclear material contained in the reactor.
Recent assessments of the strategic prospects of the nuclear energy industry tend to show a somewhat condescending attitude towards fusion, which, regretfully, has grounds given the current state of ...affairs in nuclear science. However, the analysis of the problems and the potentialities of the fusion of light nuclei and fission of heavy nuclei suggests that a full-scale development of each of the two nuclear technologies inevitably involves the need to overcome some formidable technological, materials science, environmental, and economic problems, some of which may put the feasibility of pursuing these nuclear energy programs at question. At the same time, the physical features of the fission and fusion processes objectively suggest that it may be reasonable to combine the two nuclear technologies within a joint nuclear energy system to enable a greater synergetic effect. This apparently would markedly lessen the problems attendant upon the application of each of the discussed technologies in the course of the full-scale development of nuclear energy.
The article discusses the problem of fuel supply for promising large-scale nuclear power engineering. Because of the limited resource of natural uranium, the fuel for the future should be artificial ...fissionable isotopes. This task involves closing the fuel cycle and processing the entire volume of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) in order to extract new fissile isotopes from it. However, as shown in the article, the irretrievable losses inherent in the SNF processing, when accumulated, create a radiation load on the environment, which is hundreds of times higher than the existing level. This makes it difficult to extract fissionable isotopes from SNF of a fission reactor and motivates the use of other neutron sources to generate the required amount of fissionable isotopes while maintaining a low level of radiation load. Such a source of neutrons can be hybrid fusion reactors with
233
U accumulated in the blanket from thorium raw materials.
Prospects for Thermonuclear Research Velikhov, E. P.; Ilgisonis, V. I.
Herald of the Russian Academy of Sciences,
05/2021, Letnik:
91, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Odprti dostop
Possible prospects for thermonuclear research in the first half of the 21st century and their implementation in the practical sphere of domestic energy are discussed. It is concluded that ...thermonuclear research can be and already acts as a powerful driver of scientific and technological progress, a mechanism that stimulates the development of high-tech segments of the country’s economy, and a possible element of the nuclear energy of the future. This article was prepared based on the materials of a report presented at the General Meeting of RAS Members on December 8, 2020.
Results are presented from laboratory simulations of plasma jets emitted by young stellar objects carried out at the plasma focus facilities. The experiments were performed at three facilities: the ...PF-3, PF-1000U and KPF-4. The operation modes were realized enabling the formation of narrow plasma jets which can propagate over long distances. The main parameters of plasma jets and background plasma were determined. In order to control the ratio of a jet density to that of background plasma, some special operation modes with pulsed injection of the working gas were used.
This paper addresses the Kovdor-2015 Experiment involving frequency electromagnetic soundings of the Archaean basement of the Earth’s crust in the southwestern part of the Kola Peninsula. Eleven ...soundings were carried out using two transmitting arrangements, 85 km apart. Each arrangement consisted of two mutually orthogonal grounded electric dipoles of 1.5 km long. The distances between the source and the receiver were 25 and 50 km. Interpretation of the results took into account the influence of displacement currents and static distortions. It is found that there is an intermediate conductive layer of the dilatancy–diffusion nature (DD layer) with a longitudinal conductivity of about one siemens at depths ranging from 1.5–2 to 5–7 km. The results are interpreted in the terms of geodynamics.
—In this paper, we review the results of the deep electromagnetic soundings carried out on the Archaean blocks of the Kola Peninsula over the past 40–50 years, describe the main results of the ...Murman-2018 experiment, and present a critical analysis of the previous studies considering the new data. The first part of the paper addresses the results of the studies with the extremely low frequency (ELF) transmitter “Zevs” and a 40 MW MHD source “Khibiny,” the frequency soundings with a 29 kW ERS-67 car generator, and the DC resistivity soundings with vertical electrical sounding (VES) and magnetotelluric (MT) sounding setups. The review focuses on the controversial issues of the previous results for their subsequent critical analysis based on the data from the Murman-2018 experiment. The second part of the paper describes the technique, procedure, and results of the Murman-2018 experiment. The experiment included distance DC resistivity soundings (DS), controlled-source frequency soundings (Control Source AudioMagnetoTellurics, CSAMT), and audio magnetotelluric soundings (AMT) using natural variations of the Earth’s electromagnetic field. The DS and CSAMT soundings were carried out with axial and equatorial setup configurations using two mutually orthogonal current lines AB1 and AB2 with the lengths of 1.9 and 1.6 km, respectively. The key novelty of the DS measurements was the use of a linear step in changing the distance OO' between the source and receiver (2.5 and 5 km) in the range of spacings from 2.5 to 56 km. The linear step pf change of the OO' distance was used for detecting and correcting the effects of lateral and static distortions in the observation results. The DS measurements were performed along three rays directed towards West, North, and East relative to the current lines AB1 and AB2. The CSAMT measurements were performed at a distance up to 105 km from the source in combination with AMTS. Based on the results of the Murman-2018 experiment, a three-layer model of crustal structure with resistivity increasing in a gradient–stepwise manner down to a depth of 20–30 km was constructed. The resistivity in the upper layer gradually (in a gradient-wise manner) increases with depth from 10
3
Ω m on the ground to 10
4
Ω m at a depth of 1–2 km. The middle layer has a constant resistivity on the order of (1–2) × 10
4
Ω m in the depth interval from 1–2 to 10 km and is identified as a “compaction” zone. It is detected at spacings from 2–3 to 30–40 km. In this spacing interval, apparent resistivity on the ground sharply varies from 5 × 10
3
to 5 × 10
4
Ω m against the average background 2 × 10
4
Ω m. The sharp swings are interpreted as the profiling effect and attributed to the influence of the fractured zones and faults intersected by the sounding path. According to the geological estimates, the faults are steeply dipping near the surface and gently dipping at depth. Their overall influence “stabilizes” “flattens” the resistivity of the middle layer at a level of 2 × 10
4
Ω m and leads to the formation of effect of intermediate conductive layer having a dilatancy-diffusion origin (DD-layer) in the depth interval from 3–5 to 7–10 km (at the base of the second layer) with a longitudinal conductivity on the order of 1 S m and resistivity within 5 × 10
3
to 10
4
Ω m. The third (bottom) layer manifests itself by a sharp stepwise increase in electrical resistivity up to 10
5
–10
6
Ω m and higher. The top surface of this layer is located at a depth of 10–15 km and is conditionally interpreted as an “impenetrability boundary” for direct current. This boundary marks the Brittle–Ductile Transition Zone (BDT) of the rocks. A critical analysis of the previous results in the light of the new data obtained in the Murman-2018 experiment is conducted in the Discussion section.
Real-time analytics is a relatively new branch of analytics. A common definition of real-time analytics is that it consists in analyzing data as quickly as possible over the most recent data ...possible. This defines the essence of the fundamental needs of users, but in no way is a specific requirement for the corresponding software systems due to the vagueness of the definition. As a result, different manufacturers of analytical data-management systems and researchers classify real-time analytics systems as extremely different systems, which differ in architecture, functionality, and even timing. The purpose of this article is to analyze the different approaches to providing real-time analytics, their advantages and disadvantages, and the tradeoffs that both designers and users of the systems inevitably have to make.
The strategic line of development of a nuclear power system based on fission and fusion reactors which ensures electricity generation on a specified scale, solves the fuel problem for a long-term ...outlook, and secures the lowest risk of environmental contamination is presented. A contemporary view of prospects of developing the nuclear power industry on the basis of replacement of thermal reactors in the future by fast reactors, owing to a long duration of this process and the necessity of additional resources of natural uranium, forces us to consider the possibility of implementation of this strategy as unlikely. In addition, the fuel cycle of fast reactors requires the quick reprocessing of the highly active spent fuel, and because of this, the fuel cycle will have a high risk of a negative radioactive effect on the environment. The transition of the nuclear power industry to fast reactors will lead to a full change of the infrastructure related to reactor construction and operation. In the development of a nuclear power system with fusion and fission reactors, the demands for natural uranium will correspond to current estimates of economically effective stockpiles, the risk of radioactive contamination of the environment associated with the spent fuel reprocessing will be the lowest, and the contemporary infrastructure of the nuclear power industry will be maintained, i.e., the prevalence of generating capacities based on thermal neutron reactors. Thus, the integration of nuclear power production by fusion and fission reactions into a unified system creates a significant synergetic effect, in which the deficiencies of each technology are compensated by another technology of nuclear power production.
A New Generation Pulsed MHD Generator Velikhov, E. P.; Afonin, A. G.; Butov, V. G. ...
Doklady. a journal of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Physics,
05/2019, Letnik:
64, Številka:
5
Journal Article
Recenzirano
The results of calculation and theoretical investigation for the creation of a powerful (~600 MW) pulsed MHD generator on the combustion products from solid (powder) plasma-forming fuel “Start-2” of ...a new generation are presented. The scheme, methods, results of calculations, and optimization of characteristics of the pulsed MHD generator with the self-excited resistive “iron-free” magnetic system are described. The local, integral, and specific energy and mass-dimensional characteristics are determined.
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