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Division Spotlight
Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
Meeting Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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Nuclear Science and Engineering
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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
DOE opens pilot program to authorize test reactors outside national labs
Details of the plan to test new reactor concepts under the Department of Energy’s authority but outside national laboratory boundaries—first outlined in one of the four executive orders on nuclear energy released on May 23—were just released in a request for applications issued by the DOE.
John Slough
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 60 | Number 2 | August 2011 | Pages 464-469
Power Plant, Demo, and FNSF | Proceedings of the Nineteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (TOFE) (Part 2) | doi.org/10.13182/FST60-464
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An intense neutron source capable of generating the characteristic flux of a fusion reactor (1-4 MW/m2) is an essential element for adequate reactor materials assessment. Based on recent experimental results involving the magneto-kinetic compression of the Field Reversed Configuration (FRC), it is believed that such a fusion based neutron source can be rapidly developed at low cost. The ability to provide a fusion plasma with the necessary radiation intensity is afforded by the considerable increase in fusion neutron yield that occurs concurrently with the large reduction in reacting plasma volume from the straightforward magnetic flux compression of an FRC plasmoid. Pulsed formation and flux compression of FRCs in a prototype device operating at 4 Hz would yield a neutron power fluence at the wall of 1 MW/m2 from a fusion plasma volume of a half liter. This is roughly a factor 106 smaller than a reactor-scale fusion plasma such as ITER, thereby dramatically reducing the cost and time for the evaluation of materials for fusion application. The required magnetic compression field and energy per pulse is less than 16 T and 100 kJ respectively.