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Division Spotlight
Thermal Hydraulics
The division provides a forum for focused technical dialogue on thermal hydraulic technology in the nuclear industry. Specifically, this will include heat transfer and fluid mechanics involved in the utilization of nuclear energy. It is intended to attract the highest quality of theoretical and experimental work to ANS, including research on basic phenomena and application to nuclear system design.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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
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.
S. Cirant, J. Berrino, P. Buratti, G. D'Antona, F. Gandini, G. Granucci, E. Iannone, E. Lazzaro, V. Mellera, V. Muzzini, P. Smeulders, O. Tudisco
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 53 | Number 1 | January 2008 | Pages 174-183
Technical Paper | Special Issue on Electron Cyclotron Wave Physics, Technology, and Applications - Part 2 | doi.org/10.13182/FST08-A1663
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The paper describes experimental studies performed on the FTU tokamak on magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) instabilities and their active control by electron cyclotron (EC) heating and EC current drive (ECH/ECCD). It deals in particular with implementing of an automatic system that detects both the onset and localization of tearing modes and the localization of the EC power deposition and that is capable of actuating the stabilizing reaction with ECH/ECCD. The system is composed of a digital signal processor-based control unit to analyze electron temperature fluctuations (mostly from EC emission) and Mirnov coil data and to control gyrotron power supplies. The action is provided by an arrangement of four Gaussian beams at 140 GHz, coupling up to 1.6 MW power in total. The detection/reaction system, successfully tested in the experiments described, is very fast since no mirror motion is foreseen. In fact, the Gaussian beams are preliminarily oriented in an array covering the whole region where the mode is expected, and only the one closest to the mode is switched on at its appearance. The measurement of the deposition layer dep is performed by analyzing the transient response to modulated EC power. Different modulation waveforms are used, both periodic and pseudorandom, in order to select the most sensitive and fastest technique.