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Division Spotlight
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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.
Ralph W. Moir
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 30 | Number 3 | December 1996 | Pages 1613-1623
Fusion Power Plants and Economics | doi.org/10.13182/FST96-A11963182
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
If the present research program is successful, heavy-ion beams can be used to ignite targets and to produce high gain for yields of about 400 MJ. HYLIFE-II is a power plant design based on surrounding such targets with thick liquid Flibe, (Li2BeF4) so that the chamber and other apparatus can stand up to these bursts of energy at 6 Hz for 1 GWe without replacing components during the plant's 30-year life. With liquid protection the capacity factor will be increased and the cost of component replacement will be decreased. The design is robust to technology risks in the sense that if the performance of targets, drivers and other components fall short of predictions, the cost of electricity rises surprisingly little. For example at 2 GWe, if it takes twice as much energy to ignite a target as previously projected instead of only 1.5 times, the COE increases 9% from 4 ȼ/kWh, and if the driver cost is increased by 30%, the COE increases by 12%.
The design strategy we recommend is to use conventional engineering principles and known materials in an optimized way to obtain the lowest cost of electricity while keeping the design robust to short falls in predicted cost and performance of components. For a number of components with a high technology risk we have fall-back options. However, good target performance (Gain > 50 for driver energy < 7 MJ) and low cost drivers (<800 M$ direct at driver energy ≥ 7 MJ) would be helpful to achieving good economics.