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UKAEA-STEP-PR(24)202024
Success of UKs STEP (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production) programme [1] [2] [3] [4] requires a robust plasma control system. This system has to guide the plasma from initiation to the burning phase, maintain it there, producing the desired fusion power for the desired duration and then terminate the plasma safely. This has to be done in a chall…
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UKAEA-STEP-CP(24)042023
In 2019 the UK launched the STEP programme to design and build a prototype electricity producing nuclear fusion power plant, aiming to start operation around 2040. The plant should lay the foundation for the development of commercial nuclear fusion power plants. The design is based on the spherical tokamak principle, which opens a route to high pre…
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UKAEA-STEP-CP(24)032021
Uncertainty quantification is a vital part of all engineering and scientific pursuits. Some of the current most challenging tasks in UQ involve accurately calibrating, propagating and performing optimisation under aleatory and epistemic uncertainty in high dimensional models with very few data; like the challenge proposed by Nasa Langley this year.…
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UKAEA-STEP-PR(24)182024
This paper presents a comprehensive overview of the preliminary divertor design and plasma exhaust scenario for the reactor-class Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP) project. Due to the smaller size of the machine, with a major radius less than half that of most DEMO concepts, the current design features a double-null divertor geometr…
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UKAEA-STEP-PR(24)172024
Retention of hydrogen isotopes is a critical concern for operating fusion reactors as retained tritium both activates components and removes scarce fuel from the fuel cycle. Radiation-induced displacement damage in SiC may influence the retention of hydrogen isotopes compared to pristine SiC. Deuterium retention in neutron irradiated high purity…
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UKAEA-STEP-PR(24)162023
The STEP (Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production) fusion programme aims to produce net energy as a prototype fusion energy plant in the 2040s. To find an exhaust solution which is compatible with the core, we need to achieve high impurity enrichment. In this study, we investigated the impact of deuterium gas puff location on impurity enrichme…
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UKAEA-STEP-PR(24)082024
Tritiated water will be present in many demonstrator class fusion devices in a wide array of locations and concentrations. Accurate and fast measurement will be a key requirement to ensure suitable process monitoring, safety assurance and tritium tracking is in place. This work quantifies the deuterium detection limits achievable using a bench…
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UKAEA-STEP-PR(24)152024
The Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production(STEP) environment will include magnetic, thermal, mechanical and environmental loads far greater than those seen in the Joint European Torus campaigns of the past decade or currently contemplated for ITER. Greater still are the neutron peak dose rates of 10−6 displacements per atom, per second, which in…
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UKAEA-STEP-PR(24)142024
This theme issue collects together papers summarising the conceptual design of the Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production (STEP). In 2019, the UK government funded the first design stages of a prototype fusion powerplant based on a compact toroidal geometry, called STEP. The primary technical aims of STEP are to produce net energy, to be self-s…
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UKAEA-STEP-PR(24)132024
The purpose of the digital workstream is the shorten the pathway to delivering a working fusion pilot plant. As with any development pathway there are rate limiting steps in a programme, a fairly major challenge that is common across fusion concepts is the limited possibility of physical testing with conditions close to that of a first wall environ…
Showing 1 - 10 of 56 UKAEA Paper Results