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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
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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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Commercial nuclear innovation "new space" age
In early 2006, a start-up company launched a small rocket from a tiny island in the Pacific. It exploded, showering the island with debris. A year later, a second launch attempt sent a rocket to space but failed to make orbit, burning up in the atmosphere. Another year brought a third attempt—and a third failure. The following month, in September 2008, the company used the last of its funds to launch a fourth rocket. It reached orbit, making history as the first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to do so.
M. L. Woosley, Jr., R. A. Rydin
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 129 | Number 1 | May 1998 | Pages 15-50
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE98-A1961
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The recent revival of interest in accelerator-driven subcritical fluid-fueled systems is documented. Several important applications of these systems are mentioned, and this is used to motivate the need for dynamic analysis of the nuclear kinetics of such systems. A physical description of the Los Alamos National Laboratory accelerator-based conversion (ABC) concept is provided. This system is used as the basis for the kinetics study in this research.The current approach to the dynamic simulation of an accelerator-driven subcritical fluid-fueled system includes four functional elements: A discrete ordinates model is used to calculate the flux distribution for the source-driven system; a nodal convection model is used to calculate time-dependent isotope and temperature distributions that impact reactivity; a nodal importance weighting model is used to calculate the reactivity impact of temperature and isotope distributions and to feed this information back to the time-dependent nodal convection model; and a transient driver is used to simulate transients, model the balance of plant, and record simulation data.Specific transients that have been analyzed with the current modeling system are discussed. These transients include loss-of-flow and loss-of-cooling accidents, xenon and samarium transients, and cold-plug and overfueling events. The results of various transients have uncovered unpredictable behavior, unresolved design issues, and the need for active control. The need for the development of a nodal-coupling spatial kinetics model is mentioned.