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Division Spotlight
Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
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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Latest News
Argonne’s METL gears up to test more sodium fast reactor components
Argonne National Laboratory has successfully swapped out an aging cold trap in the sodium test loop called METL (Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop), the Department of Energy announced April 23. The upgrade is the first of its kind in the United States in more than 30 years, according to the DOE, and will help test components and operations for the sodium-cooled fast reactors being developed now.
Robert Schleicher, Christina Back
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 61 | Number 1 | January 2012 | Pages 144-149
Fission | Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems | doi.org/10.13182/FST12-A13411
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
General Atomics (GA) is developing a new nuclear concept called Energy Multiplier Module (EM2), which is a helium (He) cooled fast reactor with a net electrical output of 240 MW. It employs a “convert & burn” core design which converts fertile to fissile and burns it in situ over a 30-year core life. It can burn SNF from LWRs with no reprocessing, only refabrication. The core can be recycled using an AIROX-based method to remove a fraction of the fission products (FPs) but no heavy metals. The reactor is passively safe and sited below grade. It can sustain a Fukushima type station blackout or even a station blackout combined with a loss of coolant accident using only passive safety systems without radioactivity release or loss of plant. The afterheat is rejected directly to the air. It is a high temperature reactor and employs a direct closed-cycle gas turbine for 48% net efficiency. The reject heat can be released directly to air so that siting near a large water source is not required. GA is targeting a power cost in the range of 6-7 cents/kW-hr, which would make it a competitive power source even with low-cost natural gas. This ambitious power cost is achieved through high efficiency, simplicity of the direct cycle gas turbine power and relatively small subsystems that can be shop fabricated and shipped by road to the site.