Ultra-Low Heat Leak, Radiation Tolerant Support Link (Novel Low Heat Leak Support Link for High Radiation Environments)

PROJECT SUMMARY The US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Science is actively seeking improved designs for cryogenic structural support systems that can achieve up to a 5 to 10x reduction in heat load, while still being able to tolerate radiation doses up to 100 MGy, without degradation in its mechanical and thermal performance. In addition, the cryogenic support systems must not only maintain its structural integrity over its intended 10 year life of 10 MGy/year neutron radiation, but must also be compact enough to fit within the narrow confines of the various high and low temperature superconducting magnet systems. With such high radiation doses and large mechanical loads, the choices of suitable materials are extremely limited. Any attempt at simply substituting currently used Ti-6Al-4V alloy material with a lower thermal conductivity polymer or composite would be unacceptable because of the materials inability to tolerate the extremely high radiation doses, without severe degradation of its mechanical properties. A simple substitution with radiation tolerant, lower thermal conductivity ceramics or glasses would also be unacceptable because the extremely high tensile load on the ceramic or glass material would be too high for the required compact design. The proposed push/push/pull or P3 structural/thermal link has the potential to significantly reduce the overall cryogenic heat load by nearly 5-10x, while still maintaining its structural integrity over its intended 10-year high radiation dose life. Unlike the existing push/pull designs, E2Ps proprietary P3 technology has a unique design that always loads the selected material (e.g. ceramic or glass) in compression thereby avoiding any potential tensile failures. Hence, E2Ps novel P3 technology solves all of the aforementioned issues by offering a far more promising compact architecture. In Phase 1, E2P plans to address the heat load, radiation, and structural challenges from two angles. On one hand, E2P will investigate a group of existing materials to find the best suited material/s for its P3 design. On the other hand, E2P will build, test, and evaluate two versions of its novel P3 design. At the end of Phase 1, E2P will select the best performing design to be refined and built full-scale in Phase 2. The proposed P3 support link utilizes existing ceramic and glass materials with known structural, thermal, and radiation properties, by relying on a simple but elegant low cost engineering design solution thus eliminating more speculative material studies thereby mitigating technical and cost risks. The cost benefit of reduced heat leak through the proposed technology would easily translate to other cryogenic applications such as the Fusion Energy and NASA space based applications, which may have a global positive impact. Key Words Support link, radiation tolerant, minimal heat leak, cryogenic support link Summary for Members of Congress Using its novel radiation tolerant support link technology, E2P will minimize the heat leak hence operating costs resulting in a major positive impact to many magnet and other cryogenic applications requiring radiation tolerant thermal intercepts such as ones in Fusion Energy and NASA space based applications.