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Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
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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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High-temperature plumbing and advanced reactors
The use of nuclear fission power and its role in impacting climate change is hotly debated. Fission advocates argue that short-term solutions would involve the rapid deployment of Gen III+ nuclear reactors, like Vogtle-3 and -4, while long-term climate change impact would rely on the creation and implementation of Gen IV reactors, “inherently safe” reactors that use passive laws of physics and chemistry rather than active controls such as valves and pumps to operate safely. While Gen IV reactors vary in many ways, one thing unites nearly all of them: the use of exotic, high-temperature coolants. These fluids, like molten salts and liquid metals, can enable reactor engineers to design much safer nuclear reactors—ultimately because the boiling point of each fluid is extremely high. Fluids that remain liquid over large temperature ranges can provide good heat transfer through many demanding conditions, all with minimal pressurization. Although the most apparent use for these fluids is advanced fission power, they have the potential to be applied to other power generation sources such as fusion, thermal storage, solar, or high-temperature process heat.1–3
J.M. Miller, W.R.C. Graham, S.L. Celovsky, J.R.R. Tremblay, A.E. Everatt
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 41 | Number 3 | May 2002 | Pages 1077-1081
Isotope Separation | Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Tritium Science and Technology Tsukuba, Japan November 12-16, 2001 | doi.org/10.13182/FST02-A22749
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A 5 Mg/annum Combined Electrolysis Catalytic Exchange (CECE) Facility was designed, constructed and operated to demonstrate the CECE process for heavy water detritiation. In this demonstration facility, a liquid-phase catalytic exchange (LPCE) column, using AECL's wetproofed catalyst, separated tritium from deuterium and a specially designed, low-inventory electrolytic cell provided tritium-enriched deuterium to the LPCE column. An overhead recombiner, also using wetproofed catalyst, produced detritiated heavy water. Tritium was removed from the electrolysis cell as tritiated deuterium gas and packaged as a titanium deuteride. The design detritiation factor of 100 was readily achieved using a 370 GBq/kg heavy water feed. Design features, operational experience and results from the 4-month, 2 000-h operation are described.