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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Remembering ANS member Gil Brown
Brown
The nuclear community is mourning the loss of Gilbert Brown, who passed away on July 11 at the age of 77 following a battle with cancer.
Brown, an American Nuclear Society Fellow and an ANS member for nearly 50 years, joined the faculty at Lowell Technological Institute—now the University of Massachusetts–Lowell—in 1973 and remained there for the rest of his career. He eventually became director of the UMass Lowell nuclear engineering program. After his retirement, he remained an emeritus professor at the university.
Sukesh Aghara, chair of the Nuclear Engineering Department Heads Organization, noted in an email to NEDHO members and others that “Gil was a relentless advocate for nuclear energy and a deeply respected member of our professional community. He was also a kind and generous friend—and one of the reasons I ended up at UMass Lowell. He served the university with great dedication. . . . Within NEDHO, Gil was a steady presence and served for many years as our treasurer. His contributions to nuclear engineering education and to this community will be dearly missed.”
K. E. Miller, J. A. Grossnickle, R. D. Brooks, C. L. Deards, T. E. DeHart, M. Dellinger, M. B. Fishburn, H. Y. Guo, B. Hansen, J. W. Hayward, A. L. Hoffman, W. S. Kimball, K. Y. Lee, D. E. Lotz, P. A. Melnik, R. D. Milroy, Z. A. Pietrzyk, G. C. Vlasses, F. S. Ohuchi, A. Tankut
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 54 | Number 4 | November 2008 | Pages 946-961
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST08-A1910
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The original Translation, Confinement, Sustainment (TCS) experiment was upgraded [TCS Upgrade (TCSU)] to provide an ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) environment with modern discharge cleaning and wall-coating technologies. This has allowed rotating magnetic field formed field reversed configuration plasma temperatures to increase from the TCS radiation-dominated tens of electron volts to >200 eV (Te + Ti), and FRC magnetic fields to double. The improvements are directly attributable to reduced impurity levels and reduced plasma recycling losses. Some of the technologies utilized to achieve these results included replacing O-rings with wire and conflat seals; developing high-temperature, differentially pumped, elastomeric seals for bonding extremely large quartz tubes (needed for rapid field penetration) to the stainless steel vacuum chambers; and using heater blankets for vacuum baking. Extensive testing using electron microprobe and various spectroscopic techniques was performed to establish appropriate UHV cleaning and handling methods.
