[en] Kyrgyzstan is well placed to exploit hydropower energy. Brief details are provided over the existing capacity but capital to build new plants is difficult because of the legacy of the USSR in terms of price structures. However innovative solutions are discussed. (UK)

[en] Details of a number of equipment contracts signed for China''s Three Gorges hydropower project are given. Scheduled to be completed in 2009, Three Gorges will then be the world''s largest hydropower plant with an installed capacity of 18,200 MW and annual output of 85 TWh. However, damming the Yangtze River to create a huge reservoir will flood whole towns, farmlands and forests with a subsequent loss of animal and plant species, historic sites and the need to resettle 1.3 million people. (UK)

[en] Parameters are compared for the 1000 MW steam turbine manufactured by the Skoda Works, Czechoslovakia, and turbines in the same power range by other manufacturers, viz. ABB, Siemens/KWU, GEC and LMZ. The Skoda turbine compares well with the other turbines with respect to all design parameters, and moreover, enables the most extensive heat extraction for district heating purposes. The main trends in upgrading this turbine are outlined; in particular, they include an additional increase in the heat extraction, which is made possible by a new design of the low-pressure section or by using a ''satellite'' turbine. The studies performed also indicate that the output of the full-speed saturated steam turbine can be increased to 1300 MW. An experimental turbine representing one flow of the high-pressure part of the 1000 MW turbine is being built on the 1:1 scale. It will serve to verify the methods of calculation of the wet steam flow and to experimentally test the high-pressure part over a wide span of the parameters. (Z.M.). 1 tab., 3 figs., 7 refs

[en] Two different phase reconstruct algorithms are described. The principle and the practical formula of the reconstruct algorithms are mainly described. Using a Hartmann-Shack (HS) plate with hole array instead of HS wavefront sensor, the phase of Xingguang II 10¹² W high power laser is measured. And the results of two reconstructed phases are analyzed. The P-V (peak-valley) and RMS (root-mean-square) values are also compared

[en] Wind energy has become a billion-pounds-a-year industry. Its installed capacity worldwide exceeds 4.5 gigawatts. Technical advances coupled with the buying power and mass-production techniques of the main turbine manufacturers are pushing the cost of wind energy down to attractive levels. (author)

[en] With the construction of novel X-UV sources, such as V-UV FEL's (free-electron lasers), X-UV laser-matter interaction will become available at ultra-high intensities. But even table-top facilities such as X-UV lasers or High Harmonic Generation, are starting to reach intensities high enough to produce dense plasmas. X-UV laser-matter interaction is studied by a 1-dimensional hydrodynamic Lagrangian code with radiative transfer for a range of interesting X-UV sources. Heating is found to be very different for Z=12-14 elements having L-edges around the X-UV laser wavelength. Possible absorption mechanisms were investigated in order to explain this behaviour, and interaction with cold dense matter proved to be dominant. Plasma sensitivity to X-UV laser parameters such as energy, pulse duration, and wavelength was also studied, covering ranges of existing X-UV lasers. We found that X-UV laser-produced plasmas could be studied using table-top lasers, paving the way for future V-UV-FEL high intensity experiments. (authors)

[en] Based on scientific knowledge available from ITER plasmas and advancement of fusion nuclear technology from the near-term R and D program, a low wall-loading DEMO fusion reactor has been designed, where high priority has been given to the early and reliable realization of a tokamak fusion plasma over the cost performance. Since a major radius of this DEMO reactor is increased up to 10 m, a plasma ignition is achievable with a low fusion power of 0.8 GW and an operation period of 4--5 hours is available only with inductive current drive. The low ignition power makes it possible to adopt an austenitic stainless steel, which have plenty of experiences under the neutron irradiation in fission reactors. In step with development of advanced materials, step-wise increase of the fusion power seems to be feasible and realistic, because this DEMO reactor has a potentiality to produce a fusion power of ∼5 GW

[en] A compact table-top 20-GW 50-ps CO₂ laser system is in operation for strong-field physics studies at the ATF. We propose scaling up of the picosecond CO₂ laser to a terawatt peak power level to meet the requirements of advanced laser accelerators. Computer modeling shows that a relatively compact single-beam picosecond CO₂ laser system with a high-pressure x-ray preionized amplifier of a 10-cm aperture is potentially scalable to the ∼1-TW peak power level. copyright 1995 American Institute of Physics

[en] Ignition in the ITER baseline machine is studied in the frame of a 1/2-D model using the ITER-89P scaling of the energy confinement time. The required value of the enhancement factor f_L with respect to the L-mode, allowing ignition with a total fusion power of 1100 MW, is found to be 1.9 at an optimum operating temperature of 11 keV. A sensitivity analysis shows that the critical f_L=2 value can be exceeded with relatively small changes in the physical assumptions. It is concluded that the safety margin is not sufficient for this project. Optimization of a thermonuclear plasma in a tokamak is then performed with constraints of given maximum magnetic field B in the superconducting windings, given distance between the plasma and the maximum magnetic field point, imposed safety factor at the plasma edge, and given averaged neutron flux at the plasma surface. The minimum enhancement factor f_L with respect to the L-mode, allowing ignition at a given value of the total fusion power P_fus, is only a function of the torus aspect ratio A. Taking the ITER reference values for the above constraints, the required value of f_L is practically independent of the aspect ratio but can be sensibly improved by increasing the total fusion power P_fus. With P_fus=1700 MW, a reasonable safety margin (f_L ≅ 1.5) is obtained. Analytical expressions of the conditions resulting from the above optimization are also derived for an arbitrary monomial scaling of the energy confinement time, and shown to give excellent agreement with the numerical results

[en] This article focuses on China's installed small hydroelectric capacity (SH) and the plans to use small hydroelectric plants for rural electrification thereby improving economic growth. The World Bank's SH power programme for China, the Chinese Government's plans for 10GW of new SH capacity by the year 2001, the investment framework, the use of outdated technology, and the need for international cooperative efforts to update Chinese equipment are discussed. The foundation of the International Network on Small Hydro Power, cooperation with the EU, and the development of standardised design by the Chinese industry are considered. (UK)