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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.
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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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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.S. Sarff, M. Cekic, D.J. Den Hartog, G. Fiksel, N.E. Lanier, S.C. Prager, M.R. Stoneking
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 30 | Number 3 | December 1996 | Pages 1403-1408
Innovative Approaches to Fusion Energy | doi.org/10.13182/FST96-A11963144
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The reversed field pinch (RFP) is a toroidal, high beta plasma confinement configuration with great potential as an attractive, compact, high power density fusion reactor core. Relatively poor confinement has been a main obstacle in establishing the viability of the RFP. Recent progress in understanding magnetic-fluctuation-induced transport in the RFP has spawned the idea of current profile control to reduce fluctuations and transport. With the addition of inductive poloidal current drive in the Madison Symmetric Torus (MST) device, the energy confinement time is increased five-fold from 1.2 ms to 6 ms. The lowest magnetic fluctuation level and highest electron temperature observed in MST are also obtained with inductive current profile control. These results strongly encourage the development of improved and steady-state current profile control.