Part 1 of 2 Parts
     Nucor Corporation is a manufacturer of steel and steel products. Helion Energy is a fusion energy company. These two companies are collaborating to develop a five-hundred-megawatt fusion power plant to supply baseload electricity to a steel making facility. The two companies are cooperating to set a firm timeline. They say that they they are “committed to beginning operations as soon as possible with a target of 2030.” Nucor said that it is making a direct investment of thirty-five million dollars in Helion to accelerate deployment of nuclear fusion power. Nucor claims that this is the first fusion energy agreement of this scale in the whole world. It expects this agreement to “pave the way for decarbonizing the entire industrial sector.”
     Leon Topalian is the chairman, president and CEO of Nucor. He said, “Nucor continues to position itself as a leader in developing clean energy solutions to decarbonize the industrial sector. This agreement with Helion, along with recent investments in clean energy, can change the entire energy landscape and forever change the world, embracing a clean energy future we could have hardly imagined a few years ago. We believe in the technology Helion is building and are proud to make this investment.”
     Helion’s technology involves raising fusion fuel to temperatures greater than one hundred million degrees Fahrenheit in a fusion reactor. The energy generated by the fusion reactor is converted directly to electricity using a high-efficiency pulsed approach. According to Helion, the deuterium and helium-3 fuel mixture is heated to plasma conditions while magnets confine in the plasma in a “Field Reversed Configuration (FRC).” The magnets accelerate two FRCs to one million miles per hour from opposite ends of the device so they collided in the center of the reactor.
    When the FRCs collide, they are further compressed by a very powerful magnetic field until they reach fusion temperatures (greater than one hundred eighty million degrees Fahrenheit). At this temperature, the deuterium and helium-3 ions are moving fast enough to overcome the forces that would otherwise have kept them apart and they fuse. This technology releases more energy than is consumed by the fusion process.
     As new fusion energy is generated in the reactor, the plasma expands. As the plasma expands, it pushes back on the powerful magnetic fields generated by the reactor’s magnetics. In accord with Faraday’s Law, the change in field induces current which is then directly recaptured as electricity. This allows the Helion fusion reactor to skip the steam cycle found in most other power plants that burn fuel.
     A highly renewable grid requires flexible and dispatchable power generation technology to maintain the reliability of the grid. Reciprocating internal combustion engines (RICE) are a mature, scalable, and cost-effective grid balancing solution. They have physical capabilities that are perfectly suited to integrate high levels of renewables, reduce carbon emissions, and maintain a reliable grid.
Please read Part 2 next

     Researchers under the direction Chang Liu of Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) have discovered a promising approach to mitigating damaging runaway electrons created by plasma disruptions in tokamak fusion reactors. This approach harnesses a unique type of plasma waves that bears the name of astrophysicists Hannes Alfvén, a 1970 Nobel laureate.
     Alfvén waves have long been known to loosen the confinement of high-energy particles in tokamak reactors. This permits some particles to escape and reduces the efficiency of the donut-shaped fusion reactors. However, the new findings by Chang Liu and his team at General Atomics, Columbia University and PPPL have uncovered new techniques to deal with runaway electrons.
    The researchers found that such loosening can diffuse or scatter high-energy electrons before they can turn into avalanches that damage tokamak components. This process was determined to be circular. The runaway electrons create plasma instabilities that give rise to Alfvén waves that keep avalanches from forming.
     Chang Liu is a staff researcher at PPPL and the lead author of a paper that details the results of his work in the journal Physical Review Letters. He said, “The findings establish a distinct link between these modes and the generation of runaway electrons.”

     Researchers have derived a theory for the circularity of these interactions. The results of their experiments align well with runaway electrons in experiments on the DIII-D National Fusion Facility which is a Department of Energy (DoD) tokamak that General Atomics operates for the U.S. DoE Office of Science.
     Felix Parra Diaz is the head of the Theory Department at PPPL. He said, “Chang Liu’s work shows that the runaway electron population size can be controlled by instabilities driven by the runaway electrons themselves. His research is very exciting because it might lead to tokamak designs that naturally mitigate runaway electron damage through inherent plasma instabilities.”
    Plasma disruptions begin with sharp drops in the multi-million-degree temperatures required initiate and sustain fusion reactions. These drops in temperatures are called “thermal quenches”. They release avalanches of runaway electrons similar to earthquake-produced landslides. Liu said, “Controlling plasma disruptions stands as a paramount challenge to the success of tokamaks,”
     Plasmas are the hot, charged states of matter composed of free electrons and atomic nuclei called ions. Fusion reactions combine light elements in the form of plasmas to release vast amounts of energy. Fusion processes power the Sun and stars. Mitigating the risk of plasma disruptions and runaway electrons would provide a significant benefit for tokamak facilities designed to reproduce the fusion process on Earth.
     The new approach could have implications for the advancement of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). ITER is the international tokamak project under construction in France to demonstrate the practicality of fusion energy and could mark a key step in the development of commercial fusion power plants.
     Liu said, “Our findings set the stage for creating fresh strategies to mitigate runaway electrons.” Experimental campaigns in which all three research centers aim to further develop the important findings with respect to runaway electrons.

     South Korea (S.K.) has warned North Korea (N.K.) that it would seek to terminate the Kim Jong Un regime if nuclear weapons were used in practice. S.K. called N.K’s nuclear intimidation a “grave challenge” to the international community.
     Yoon Suk Yeol is the President of S.K. He said in a speech to celebrate S.K. Armed Forces Day, “Despite repeated warnings from the international community over the past several decades, North Korea has been upgrading its nuclear and missile capabilities. Moreover, it has been blatantly threatening to use nuclear weapons. If North Korea uses nuclear weapons, its regime will be brought to an end by an overwhelming response from the Republic of Korea (ROK)-U.S. alliance.” He called N.K.’s nuclear gamble an “existential threat” to S.K. He went on to say that it posed a “grave challenge” to global peace.
     The S.K. President stressed that “Our people will never be deceived by the fake peace tricks of North Korea’s communist regime, its followers and anti-state forces.” He added that S.K. will further strengthen trilateral security operations with Washington and Tokyo.
     Yoon’s comments are the latest in a series of warnings amid rising tensions and N.K. accelerated provocations. N.K. just announced a new law dealing with its use of nuclear weapons in September of 2022. In the new legislation, N.K. delineated the circumstances under which nuclear weapons could be used. N.K. said that it has the option to deploy nuclear weapons not merely as a retaliatory measure, but also in a preemptive strike to bolster its deterrence capabilities.
     The legislation grants N.K. the authority to use nuclear weapons preemptively in scenarios where:
• A weapon of mass destruction launch or approach is assessed,
• A nuclear or non-nuclear assault on the state leadership and the command structure of the state’s nuclear forces is initiated or deemed imminent,
• A lethal military attack on significant strategic assets of the state is initiated or imminent.
     Yoon said, “The North Korean regime must clearly realize that nuclear weapons will never be able to guarantee its security.” He vowed that he would expand the scope of the U.S.-S.K. alliance into the space and cyber domains to further strengthen the allies’ capabilities.
     Yoon also pinpointed the N.K. regime’s most vulnerable point. He said, “The North Korean regime’s obsession with the development of nuclear weapons aggravates the North Korean people’s suffering. It continues to exploit and oppress its people and violate their human rights.”
     S.K. has indicated that it would continue to raise the issue of human rights in N.K. S.K. appointed a N.K. defector as its top policy aide earlier this month, underscoring the Yoon administration’s renewed stance towards a more hardline policy on N.K.
     Yoon’s warning came a day after N.K. labeled him “politically immature”, a “diplomatic idiot” and a “trash-like head.”
     This verbal exchange between the Koreas followed Yoon’s harsh message to N.K. and Russia at the U.N. General Assembly recently. He vowed that Seoul and its allies “would not just stand idly by,” if the two authoritarian states pursue military cooperation.
     In a bilateral summit earlier this month, Russian President Vladimir Putin had offered to aid N.K. in perfecting his “satellite” technology.
      Yoon is politically conservative. He has been seeking to align S.K.’s foreign policy stance with the U.S. to counter global challenges including N.K.’s nuclear ambitions.

     Finland’s Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) reported that its review of Posiva Oy’s operating license application for the world’s first spent nuclear fuel disposal facility is taking longer than expected. It will not be completed by the end of 2023 as planned.
    Radioactive waste management company Posiva submitted its application and related information to the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment (TEM) on December 30th of 2021 for an operating license for the spent nuclear fuel encapsulation plant and final disposal facility under construction at Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant located in Eurajoki, Region of Satakunta. The underground spent nuclear fuel repository is expected to start operations in the mid-2020s. Posiva is also applying for an operating license for a period from March 2024 to the end of 2070.
     The Finnish government will make the final decision on Posiva’s construction application. However, a positive opinion by STUK is required before the government acts. The ministry requested STUK’s opinion on the application by the end of this year. The regulator started its review in May of 2022 after concluding that Posiva had provided sufficient material. However, STUK has now said that its safety assessment and opinion on the application will not be finished this year.
     STUK said, “Overall, STUK has progressed well in processing the application for an operating permit, but it is still in progress. The data is large and STUK has also required Posiva to update parts of it. Consequently, the work has lasted longer than expected. When STUK has received the processing of the operating license application material submitted by Posiva, it will prepare a safety assessment, which will be attached to the safety statement prepared for the operating license application.” STUK said that it is preparing to propose to the ministry to postpone the deadline for the submission of its opinion on the application.
     STUK said it cannot estimate how long it will take to submit its opinion. Päivi Mäenalanen is STUK’s project manager. He said, “It depends not only on STUK but also on Posiva and how quickly it can deliver the missing material to us. However, there is no question of any dramatic delay.”
     The site for Posiva’s repository was chosen in 2000. The Finnish Parliament approved the decision-in-principle on the repository project in 2001. Posiva submitted its construction license application to TEM in December of 2013. The company studied the rock at Olkiluoto. It prepared its license application using results from the Onkalo underground laboratory. The laboratory is being expanded to form the basis for the spent nuclear fuel repository.
     The Finnish government granted a construction license for the project in November of 2015. Construction work on the repository began in December of 2016.
      Once it receives the operating license, Posiva can begin the final disposal of spent nuclear fuel generated from the operation of Teollisuuden Voima Oyj’s (TVO) Olkiluoto and Fortum’s Loviisa nuclear power plants. The operation will last for about one hundred years before the nuclear waste repository is closed and permanently sealed.