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Division Spotlight
Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Commercial nuclear innovation "new space" age
In early 2006, a start-up company launched a small rocket from a tiny island in the Pacific. It exploded, showering the island with debris. A year later, a second launch attempt sent a rocket to space but failed to make orbit, burning up in the atmosphere. Another year brought a third attempt—and a third failure. The following month, in September 2008, the company used the last of its funds to launch a fourth rocket. It reached orbit, making history as the first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to do so.
S. Imagawa, A. Sagara, H. Yamada, N. Nakajima, A. Komori, O. Motojima, LHD Experiment Group
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 58 | Number 1 | July-August 2010 | Pages 593-598
Chapter 13. Prospects for Fusion Reactor | Special Issue on Large Helical Device (LHD) | doi.org/10.13182/FST10-A10847
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Heliotron reactors have several features suitable for a fusion power plant, such as no need for current drive, no plasma current disruptions, suitability for steady-state operation, and a wide space between helical coils useful for maintenance of in-vessel components. According to recent reactor studies based on the experimental results in the Large Helical Device (LHD), the plasma major radius of a heliotron reactor is set to 14 to 16 m in order to install shielding and breeding blankets with total thickness of 1 m. The central toroidal field for the self-ignition is 5 to 6 T under the assumption that the confinement enhancement factor is 1.2 to 1.4 with respect to the LHD. The stored magnetic energy is estimated to be 120 to 150 GJ. Both the major radius and the magnetic energy are three times larger than those of ITER. Its large helical windings, however, can be realized by steady extension from the ITER technology, because cable-in-conduit conductors similar to those for ITER toroidal field coils can be adopted. Improvement of plasma confinement is essential to reduce the number of magnet systems. A roadmap to a heliotron DEMO is discussed.