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Division Spotlight
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver 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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Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
May 2025
Latest News
Industry Update—May 2025
Here is a recap of industry happenings from the recent past:
TerraPower’s Natrium reactor advances on several fronts
TerraPower has continued making aggressive progress in several areas for its under-construction Natrium Reactor Demonstration Project since the beginning of the year. Natrium is an advanced 345-MWe reactor that has liquid sodium as a coolant, improved fuel utilization, enhanced safety features, and an integrated energy storage system, allowing for a brief power output boost to 500-MWe if needed for grid resiliency. The company broke ground for its first Natrium plant in 2024 near a retiring coal plant in Kemmerer, Wyo.
Stanislav Medin, Mikhail Churazov, Dmitri Koshkarev, Boris Sharkov, Yurii Orlov, Viktor Suslin, Eugeni Zemskov
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 43 | Number 3 | May 2003 | Pages 437-446
Technical Paper | Fast Ignition Targets and Z-Pinch Concepts | doi.org/10.13182/FST03-A289
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The concept of a fast-ignition heavy-ion fusion (FIHIF) power plant involves a cylindrical target and superhigh energy ion beams. The driver produces one plus/minus charge state multimass platinum ions with energy of 100 GeV. The driver efficiency and the target gain are taken as 0.25 and 100, respectively. The preliminary data on the energy fluxes delivered to the reactor chamber wall by the 500-MJ fusion yield are presented. The reactor chamber designed has two sections. In the first section, the microexplosions occur, and in the second section of bigger volume the expansion and condensation of vapors take place. The response of the blanket and the thin liquid film at the first-wall surface is evaluated. Lithium-lead eutectic is taken as a coolant. The evaporated mass and the condensation time are estimated, taking into account major thermophysical effects. The estimated neutron spectrum from the FIHIF target gives an average neutron energy of 11.9 MeV. The mechanical stresses in the construction material due to neutron energy release are evaluated. The outlet coolant chamber temperature is taken as 550°C. The heat conversion system consisting of three coolant loops provides a net efficiency of the FIHIF power plant of 0.37.