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Division Spotlight
Nuclear Criticality Safety
NCSD provides communication among nuclear criticality safety professionals through the development of standards, the evolution of training methods and materials, the presentation of technical data and procedures, and the creation of specialty publications. In these ways, the division furthers the exchange of technical information on nuclear criticality safety with the ultimate goal of promoting the safe handling of fissionable materials outside reactors.
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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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.
Kunihiro Yamamoto, Zensaku Kawara, Tomoaki Kunugi, Takayoshi Norimatsu
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 60 | Number 2 | August 2011 | Pages 585-589
IFE Design & Technology | Proceedings of the Nineteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (TOFE) (Part 2) | doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A12446
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To protect from high-energy fluxes caused by nuclear fusion reaction to a first wall of a laser-fusion reactor such as KOYO reactor, the cascade-type falling liquid-metal film flow was proposed as a liquid-wall concept which was one of the reactor chamber cooling and wall protection schemes. In this concept, vapor released by fuel targets and the liquid wall will be condensed on the chamber ceiling which is kept relatively cold. The condensed liquid-metal vapor makes many droplets on the ceiling, and then the droplets will agglomerate, and eventually make the liquid film on the ceiling surface. The liquid-metal film will flow from the ceiling to the liquid first-wall. In this study, the proof-of-principal (POP) experiments and numerical simulations were conducted regarding the liquid-film flow on the ceiling wall. It is found that if the liquid film is formed on the ceiling surface, the liquid flows along the ceiling wall and from the ceiling wall down to the reactor core as long as the vapor is supplied. Moreover, the measurements of the liquid-film thickness were taken by using a confocal laser scanning microscopy, and the effects of the wettability of the wall on the liquid film flow behavior were obtained.