ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Division Spotlight
Materials Science & Technology
The objectives of MSTD are: promote the advancement of materials science in Nuclear Science Technology; support the multidisciplines which constitute it; encourage research by providing a forum for the presentation, exchange, and documentation of relevant information; promote the interaction and communication among its members; and recognize and reward its members for significant contributions to the field of materials science in nuclear technology.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
May 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
G7 pledges support for nuclear at Italy meeting
The Group of Seven (G7) recommitted its support for nuclear energy in the countries that opt to use it at a Ministerial Meeting on Climate in Italy last month.
In a statement following the April meeting, the group committed to support multilateral efforts to strengthen the resilience of nuclear supply chains, referencing the goal set by 25 countries during last year’s COP28 climate conference in Dubai to triple global nuclear generating capacity by 2050.
Y. Zhai, C. Neumeyer, J. Dellas, N. Greenough, M. Kalish, J. Petrella, W. Que, S. Raftopoulos, and the NSTX-U Coil Test Team
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 75 | Number 8 | November 2019 | Pages 775-785
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2019.1610314
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The National Spherical Torus eXperiment Upgrade (NSTX-U) is an innovative magnetic fusion device constructed at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL). In 2016, because of the failure of the PF-1a upper divertor coil, which experienced a coolant blockage, the NSTX-U operation was suspended. A postmortem investigation indicated that an undetected gradual deterioration of coil inductance preceded the coolant blockage leading up to the operational suspension. The project team decided that all inner poiloidal field (PF) upper and lower coil pairs, denoted PF-1a, PF-1b, and PF-1c, shall be replaced with new coils of improved design and manufacture. The new prototype inner PF coils from four suppliers across the globe were evaluated at PPPL following a prototype technical evaluation procedure. Mechanical inspection and electrical testing were performed to qualify each supplier.
This paper discusses the details of the mechanical and electrical tests and measurements performed on the complete coils. The test results were used to assess quality of turn-to-turn and turn-to-ground insulations of the prototype coils. Two prototype coils were power tested at PPPL for five pulses to reach its rated current and maximum temperature following the completion of low-power electrical testing. During pulses, the conductors experience a near adiabatic temperature rise and hoop stress. Between pulses, cold water enters the inlet, and a cooling wave propagates through the coils as slugs of cold water heat up to the conductor temperature and then pass through the coil to the outlet. Results show that full power testing did not change coil electrical characteristics. Each prototype coil was then sectioned into two halves to permit examination of the internal insulation, conductor spacing, and vacuum pressure impregnation quality. The high-voltage breakdown test of sectioned coils was performed to evaluate turn and ground insulation breakdown voltage. The estimate for the production coils is based largely on the experience learned from the prototype coil program. The first production coil will be delivered to PPPL for testing by January 2020.