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Education, Training & Workforce Development
The Education, Training & Workforce Development Division provides communication among the academic, industrial, and governmental communities through the exchange of views and information on matters related to education, training and workforce development in nuclear and radiological science, engineering, and technology. Industry leaders, education and training professionals, and interested students work together through Society-sponsored meetings and publications, to enrich their professional development, to educate the general public, and to advance nuclear and radiological science and engineering.
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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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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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February 2024
Latest News
Can hydrogen be the transportation fuel in an otherwise nuclear economy?
Let’s face it: The global economy should be powered primarily by nuclear power. And it probably will by the end of this century, with a still-significant assist from renewables and hydro. Once nuclear systems are dominant, the costs come down to where gas is now; and when carbon emissions are reduced to a small portion of their present state, it will become obvious that most other sources are only good in niche settings. I mean, why use small modular reactors to load-follow when they can just produce that power instead of buffering it?
G. L. Jackson, M. E. Austin, J. S. deGRASSIE, A. W. Hyatt, J. M. Lohr, T. C. Luce, R. Prater, W. P. West
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 57 | Number 1 | January 2010 | Pages 27-40
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST10-A9266
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Second-harmonic X-mode (X2) electron cyclotron (EC) heating (ECH) has been used in DIII-D in conjunction with plasma initiation and current ramp-up. Although the toroidal inductive electric field E in DIII-D is high enough (0.9 to 1.0 V/m) to allow robust start-up without EC assist, start-up in fusion devices such as ITER will have lower fields (E = 0.3 V/m), and EC assist can provide a reproducible breakdown and an increased margin for burnthrough of low-Z impurities. ECH, applied before the inductive electric field, is used to separate the various phases of plasma breakdown and start-up and is defined as preionization. Preionization first occurs near the X2 resonance location and then expands in the vessel volume. Perpendicular launch (k[parallel] = 0) is found to produce the strongest preionization. The power threshold for preionization can be reduced by optimizing the prefill and the vertical field, although the lowest power threshold is not at the optimum value for ohmic start-up alone. An orbit-following code confirms that cold electrons (0.03 eV) can be sufficiently heated by ECH to energies above the threshold of ionization of hydrogen. This code predicts heating in new tokamaks such as KSTAR and ITER to energies where preionization can occur. The ITER start-up scenario has been simulated in DIII-D experiments, and X2 ECH assist has been applied at reduced toroidal loop voltage to assist burnthrough and plasma current ramp-up.