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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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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Latest News
Spent fuel transfer project completed at INL
Work crews at Idaho National Laboratory have transferred 40 spent nuclear fuel canisters into long-term storage vaults, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has reported.
Han Zhang, Peter H. Titus, Robert Ellis, Soren Harrison, Rui Vieira
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 64 | Number 2 | August 2013 | Pages 250-254
Plasma-Material Interactions | Proceedings of the Twentieth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (TOFE-2012) (Part 1), Nashville, Tennessee, August 27-31, 2012 | doi.org/10.13182/FST13-A18085
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Alcator C-Mod is planning an upgrade to its outer divertor. The upgrade is intended to correct the existing outer divertor alignment with the plasma, and to operate at elevated temperatures. Higher temperature operation will allow study of edge physics behavior at reactor relevant temperatures. The outer divertor and tiles will be capable of operating at 600 °C. Longer pulse length, together with the plasma and RF heat of 9 MW, and the inclusion of heater elements within the outer divertor produces radiative energy which makes the sustained operation much more difficult than before. An ANSYS model was built for the global thermal analysis of C-Mod. It models the radiative surfaces inside the vessel and between the components, and also includes plasma energy deposition. Different geometries have been simulated and compared. Results show that steady state operation with the divertor at 600 °C is possible with no damage to major vessel internal components. The differential temperature between inner divertor structure, or "girdle" and inner vessel wall is ~70 °C. This differential temperature is limited by the capacity of the studs that hold the inner divertor backing plates to the vessel wall. At a 70 °C temperature differential the stress on the studsis within allowable limits. The thermal model was then used for a stress pass to quantify vessel shell stresses where thermal gradients are significant.