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Division Spotlight
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
Meeting Spotlight
2025 ANS Annual Conference
June 15–18, 2025
Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott Downtown
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
Nuclear fuel cycle reimagined: Powering the next frontiers from nuclear waste
In the fall of 2023, a small Zeno Power team accomplished a major feat: they demonstrated the first strontium-90 heat source in decades—and the first-ever by a commercial company.
Zeno Power worked with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to fabricate and validate this Z1 heat source design at the lab’s Radiochemical Processing Laboratory. The Z1 demonstration heralded renewed interest in developing radioisotope power system (RPS) technology. In early 2025, the heat source was disassembled, and the Sr-90 was returned to the U.S. Department of Energy for continued use.
Eliseo Visca, A. Pizzuto, B. Riccardi, S. Roccella, G. P. Sanguinetti
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 61 | Number 2 | February 2012 | Pages 118-123
Technical Paper | First Joint ITER-IAEA Technical Meeting on Analysis of ITER Materials and Technologies | doi.org/10.13182/FST12-A13376
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
ENEA and Ansaldo Nucleare S.p.A. (EA) have been deeply involved in the European International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) research and development activities for the manufacturing of high-heat-flux plasma-facing components and in particular for the inner vertical target (IVT) of the ITER divertor.These components have to be manufactured by using both armor and structural materials whose properties are defined by ITER. Their physical properties prevent the use of standard joining techniques. The reference armor materials are tungsten and carbon/carbon fiber composite (CFC), and for the cooling pipe, the materials are a copper alloy (CuCrZr).During the last years EA have jointly manufactured several actively cooled mock-ups and prototypical components of different lengths, geometries, and materials by using innovative processes: hot radial pressing (HRP) and prebrazed casting (PBC).The HRP technique is based on radial diffusion bonding between the cooling tube and the armor material obtained by pressurizing only the cooling tube while the joining zone is kept in vacuum and at the required bonding temperature. The heating is obtained by a standard air furnace.The PBC process is used for the CFC armor tile preparation. A soft copper interlayer between the tube and armor is necessary to mitigate the stress at the joint interface, and it is obtained by pure copper casting that follows the activation of the CFC surface by a standard brazing alloy.The optimization of the processes started from the successful manufacturing of both tungsten and CFC small-scale mock-ups and successful testing under the worst ITER operating condition (20 MW/m2) through the achievement of record performances obtained from a medium-scale vertical target CFC and tungsten armored mock-up: After ITER-relevant heat flux fatigue testing (20 MW/m2 for 2000 cycles, CFC part, and 15 MW/m2 for 2000 cycles, tungsten part), it reached a critical heat flux of 35 MW/m2 at ITER-relevant thermal-hydraulic conditions.Based on these results EA participated in the European program for the qualification and manufacturing of the divertor IVT, according to the Fusion for Energy (F4E) specifications. A divertor IVT prototype (400-mm total length) with three plasma-facing-component units was successfully tested at ITER-relevant thermal heat fluxes (20 MW/m2 for 3000 cycles, CFC part, and 15 MW/m2 for 3000 cycles, tungsten part).Now, EA are ready to face the challenge of the ITER IVT production, transferring to an industrial production line the experience gained in the development, optimization, and qualification of the PBC and HRP processes.
