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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Fusion Science and Technology
August 2025
Latest News
The newest era of workforce development at ANS
As most attendees of this year’s ANS Annual Conference left breakfast in the Grand Ballroom of the Chicago Downtown Marriott to sit in on presentations covering everything from career pathways in fusion to recently digitized archival nuclear films, 40 of them made their way to the hotel’s fifth floor to take part in the second offering of Nuclear 101, a newly designed certification course that seeks to give professionals who are in or adjacent to the industry an in-depth understanding of the essentials of nuclear energy and engineering from some of the field’s leading experts.
Robert R. Peterson, Gregory A. Moses, Gary W. Cooper
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 1 | Number 3 | July 1981 | Pages 377-389
Technical Paper | ICF | doi.org/10.13182/FST81-A19938
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The criteria governing the choice of cavity gas for light-ion-beam fusion reactors have been investigated. Possible mechanisms of laser initiation of plasma discharge channels and the effects of cavity gas choice on one of the most promising mechanisms are discussed. The shock overpressure and the thermal heat flux experienced by the first wall are studied for a variety of cavity gases. Small amounts of alkali metal vapors are found to be useful in both limiting the thermal heat flux and initiating the plasma channels. A 50-Torr argon cavity gas with a 0.2% sodium impurity has been found to allow both efficient laser channel initiation and first-wall survivability.
