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Division Spotlight
Young Members Group
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.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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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Latest News
NRC updating GEIS rule for new nuclear technology
The Nuclear Regulatory Agency is issuing a proposed generic environmental impact statement (GEIS) for use in reviewing applications for new nuclear reactors.
In an April 17 memo, NRC secretary Carrie Safford wrote that the commission approved NRC staff’s recommendation to publish in the Federal Register a proposed rule amending 10 CFR Part 51, “Environmental Protection Regulations for Domestic Licensing and Related Regulatory Functions.”
A. Puig Sitjes, M. Jakubowski, A. Ali, P. Drewelow, V. Moncada, F. Pisano, T. T. Ngo, B. Cannas, J. M. Travere, G. Kocsis, T. Szepesi, T. Szabolics, W7-X Team
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 74 | Number 1 | July-August 2018 | Pages 116-124
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1396860
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) fusion experiment is aimed at proving that the stellarator concept is suitable for a future fusion reactor. Therefore, it is designed for steady-state plasmas of up to 30 min, which means that the thermal control of the plasma-facing components (PFCs) is of vital importance to prevent damage to the device.
In this paper an overview of the design of the Near Real-Time Image Diagnostic System (hereinafter called “the System”) for PFCs protection in W7-X is presented. The goal of the System is to monitor the PFCs with high risk of permanent damage due to local overheating during plasma operations and to send alarms to the interlock system. The monitoring of the PFCs is based on thermographic and video cameras, and their video streams are analyzed by means of graphics processing unit–based computer vision techniques to detect the strike line, hot spots, and other thermal events. The video streams and the detected thermal events are displayed online in the control room in the form of a thermal map and permanently stored in the database. In order to determine the emissivity and maximum temperature allowed, a pixel-based correspondence between the image and the observed device part is required. The three-dimensional geometry of W7-X makes the System particularly sensitive to the spatial calibration of the cameras since hot spots can be expected anywhere, and a full segmentation of the field of view is necessary, in contrast to other regions of interest–based systems. A precise registration of the field of view and a correction of the strong lens distortion caused by the wide-angle optical system are then required.
During the next operation phase the uncooled graphite divertor units will allow the System to be tested without risk of damaging the divertors in preparation for when water-cooled high-heat-flux divertors will be used.