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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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Latest News
Proving DRACO will deliver
The United States is now closer than it has been in over five decades to launching the first nuclear thermal rocket into space, thanks to DRACO—the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Orbit.
J.T. Hunt, K.R. Manes, J.R. Murray, P.A. Renard, R. Sawicki, J.B. Trenholme, W. Williams
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 26 | Number 3 | November 1994 | Pages 767-771
National Ignition Facility | Proceedings of the Eleventh Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy New Orleans, Louisiana June 19-23, 1994 | doi.org/10.13182/FST94-A40247
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Controlled nuclear fusion initiated by highly intense laser beams has been the subject of experiment for many years. The National Ignition Facility (NIF) represents the culmination of design efforts to provide a laser facility that will successfully demonstrate fusion ignition in the laboratory. In this so-called inertial confinement approach, energetic driver beams (laser, X ray, or charged particle) heat the outer surface of a spherical capsule containing deuterium and tritium (DT) fuel. As the capsule surface explosively evaporates, reaction pressure compresses the DT fuel causing the central core of the fuel to reach extreme density and temperature. When the central temperature is high enough, DT fusion reactions occur. The energy released from these reactions further heats the compressed fuel, and fusion burn propagates outward through the colder regions of the capsule much more rapidly than the inertially confined capsule can expand. The resulting fusion reactions yield many times more energy than was absorbed from the driver beams. Figure 1 summarizes the inertial confinement fusion (ICF) process.