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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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
Optimizing nuclear plant outages: Data analytics tools and methods for enhancing resilience and efficiency
Nuclear power plant refueling outages are among the most complex phases in a plant’s operational cycle.1 During these outages, tens of thousands of activities, including maintenance and surveillance, are conducted simultaneously within a short timeframe. Typically lasting three to four weeks, these operations involve large crews of contractors with diverse skill sets performing tasks ranging from testing and surveillance to maintenance. Outages may extend longer if major backfitting or modernization projects are planned. Consequently, plant outages are expensive, incurring significant operational costs, such as contractor labor and equipment, as well as the loss of generation while the plant is off line. This can easily cost a plant operator more than $1 million a day. Therefore, there is a constant need to mitigate the economic impact on plants by reducing the frequency, duration, and risks associated with these outages.2,3
J. D. Galambos, Y-K. M. Peng, D. T. Blackfield
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 10 | Number 3 | November 1986 | Pages 498-503
The Compact Ignition Tokamak Program | Proceedings of the Seveth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Reno, Nevada, June 15–19, 1986) | doi.org/10.13182/FST86-A24795
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Fusion Engineering Design Center (FEDC) Tokamak Systems Code is used to perform trade studies in accordance with the Compact Ignition Tokamak (CIT) physics and engineering guidelines. We examine various toroidal field coil (TFC) configurations, preload levels, and coil materials. Use of Inconel-copper composite material results in the smallest sized devices for both bucked and wedged TFCs and wedged-only TFCs. Preload levels of 23 Mkg are needed for the minimum sized devices, and for the lower strength materials, the minimum size is sensitive to the preload level. Results from these trade studies help lead to the choice of the baseline CIT point at R = 1.25 m and B = 10.4 T.
