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Division Spotlight
Thermal Hydraulics
The division provides a forum for focused technical dialogue on thermal hydraulic technology in the nuclear industry. Specifically, this will include heat transfer and fluid mechanics involved in the utilization of nuclear energy. It is intended to attract the highest quality of theoretical and experimental work to ANS, including research on basic phenomena and application to nuclear system design.
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.
Peter T. Sheehey, Joyce A. Guzik, Ronald C. Kirkpatrick, Irvin R. Lindemuth, David W. Scudder, Jack S. Shlachter, Frederick J. Wysocki
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 30 | Number 3 | December 1996 | Pages 1355-1359
Innovative Approaches to Fusion Energy | doi.org/10.13182/FST96-A11963137
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF), a preheated and magnetized target plasma is hydrodynamically compressed to fusion conditions.1,2 Because the magnetic field suppresses losses by electron thermal conduction in the fuel during the target implosion heating process, the compression may be over a much longer time scale than in traditional inertial confinement fusion (ICF). Bigger targets and much lower initial target densities than in ICF can be used, reducing radiative energy losses. Therefore, “liner-on-plasma” compressions, driven by relatively inexpensive electrical pulsed power, may be practical. Potential MTF target plasmas must meet minimum temperature, density, and magnetic field starting conditions, and must remain relatively free of high-Z radiation-cooling-enhancing contaminants. At Los Alamos National Laboratory, computational and experimental research is being pursued into MTF target plasmas, such as deuterium-fiber-initiated Z-pinches,3 and the Russian-originated “MAGO” plasma.4 In addition, liner-on-plasma compressions of such target plasmas to fusion conditions are being computationally modeled, and experimental investigation of such heavy liner implosions has begun. The status of the research will be presented.