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Conference Spotlight
2026 Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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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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What’s the most difficult question you’ve been asked as a maintenance instructor?
Blye Widmar
"Where are the prints?!"
This was the final question in an onslaught of verbal feedback, comments, and critiques I received from my students back in 2019. I had two years of instructor experience and was teaching a class that had been meticulously rehearsed in preparation for an accreditation visit. I knew the training material well and transferred that knowledge effectively enough for all the students to pass the class. As we wrapped up, I asked the students how they felt about my first big system-level class, and they did not hold back.
“Why was the exam from memory when we don’t work from memory in the plant?” “Why didn’t we refer to the vendor documents?” “Why didn’t we practice more on the mock-up?” And so on.
T. Brown, J. Menard, L. El-Gueblay, A. Davis
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 68 | Number 2 | September 2015 | Pages 277-281
Technical Paper | Proceedings of TOFE-2014 | doi.org/10.13182/FST14-911
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
One of the goals of the PPPL Spherical Tokamak (ST) Fusion Nuclear Science Facility (FNSF) study was to generate a self-consistent conceptual design of an ST-FNSF device with sufficient physics and engineering details to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of different designs and to assess various ST-FNSF missions. This included striving to achieve tritium self-sufficiency; the ability to provide shielding protection of vital components and to develop maintenance strategies that could be used to maintain the in-vessel components (divertors, breeding blankets, shield modules and services) and characterize design upgrade potentials to expanded mission evolutions.
With the conceptual design of a 2.2 m ST pilot plant design already completed emphasis was placed on evaluating a range of ST machine sizes looking at a major radius of 1m and a mid-range device size between 1 m and 2.2 m.
This paper will present an engineering summary of the design details developed from this study, expanding on earlier progress reports presented at earlier conferences that focused on a mid-size 1.7 m device. Further development has been made by physics in defining a Super-X divertor arrangement that provides an expanded divertor surface area and places all PF coils outside the TF coil inner bore, in regions that improve the device maintenance characteristics. Physics, engineering design and neutronics analysis for both the 1.7 m and 1 m device have been enhanced. The engineering results of the PPPL ST-FNSF study will be presented along with comments on possible future directions.