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The Young Members Group works to encourage and enable all young professional members to be actively involved in the efforts and endeavors of the Society at all levels (Professional Divisions, ANS Governance, Local Sections, etc.) as they transition from the role of a student to the role of a professional. It sponsors non-technical workshops and meetings that provide professional development and networking opportunities for young professionals, collaborates with other Divisions and Groups in developing technical and non-technical content for topical and national meetings, encourages its members to participate in the activities of the Groups and Divisions that are closely related to their professional interests as well as in their local sections, introduces young members to the rules and governance structure of the Society, and nominates young professionals for awards and leadership opportunities available to members.
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2025 ANS Annual Conference
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Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott Downtown
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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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Fusion Science and Technology
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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
Rolf Bünde
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 14 | Number 1 | July 1988 | Pages 197-217
Technical Paper | Net Overview | doi.org/10.13182/FST88-A25159
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To achieve its targets in reasonable time, the Next European Torus (NET) must be operated with considerable reliability and availability (R&A). Therefore, failure modes, effects, and criticality analysis (FMECA) of the overall plant and of its major components is already being performed as the design evolves. The present status of the R&A work is described in four steps: First, the R&A targets envisaged for the NET operation are discussed. Then an FMECA covering the overall plant is described, and a more detailed FMECA of major components is presented concerning the toroidal field coil system; plasma heating systems; protection, instrumentation, and control system; first wall and blanket, as well as the cooling system. Finally, the R&A results are compared with the targets, and measures for improvements are given.