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The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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Fusion Science and Technology
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. A. Leuer, B. J. Xiao, D. A. Humphreys, M. L. Walker, A. W. Hyatt, G. L. Jackson, D. Mueller, B. G. Penaflor, D. A. Piglowski, R. D. Johnson, A. S. Welander, Q. P. Yuan, H. Z. Wang, J. R. Luo, EAST Team
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 57 | Number 1 | January 2010 | Pages 48-65
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST10-A9268
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) was the first shaped tokamak of mega-ampere scale to achieve plasma utilizing a fully superconducting poloidal field coil system, and it is addressing ITER relevant superconducting constraints associated with the breakdown, plasma formation, and initial plasma current ramp. Electric field production for plasma start-up is severely limited in fully superconducting machines as a consequence of constraints associated with coil and lead voltages and eddy current heating in the superconducting coils. Such constraints motivate the use of electromagnetic modeling codes to design start-up scenarios for these devices. The successful first plasma campaign of the EAST superconducting tokamak was greatly facilitated by extensive and careful planning, development of appropriate modeling, simulation and diagnostic tools, a highly flexible plasma control system, and a highly experienced international collaboration team. We describe the design and modeling tools used to develop the first plasma scenario along with results of their application in the start-up campaign. Control design tools and plasma control algorithms utilized during the first campaign are discussed. Key physics, engineering, and operations results of the first plasma campaign are presented, including observations relevant to future devices such as ITER.