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Division Spotlight
Thermal Hydraulics
The division provides a forum for focused technical dialogue on thermal hydraulic technology in the nuclear industry. Specifically, this will include heat transfer and fluid mechanics involved in the utilization of nuclear energy. It is intended to attract the highest quality of theoretical and experimental work to ANS, including research on basic phenomena and application to nuclear system design.
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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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Commercial nuclear innovation "new space" age
In early 2006, a start-up company launched a small rocket from a tiny island in the Pacific. It exploded, showering the island with debris. A year later, a second launch attempt sent a rocket to space but failed to make orbit, burning up in the atmosphere. Another year brought a third attempt—and a third failure. The following month, in September 2008, the company used the last of its funds to launch a fourth rocket. It reached orbit, making history as the first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to do so.
Mahmoud Bakr, Kai Masuda, Masaya Yoshida
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 75 | Number 6 | August 2019 | Pages 479-486
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2019.1609821
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Neutrons are generated in the inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) device through different types of fusion reactions of the fuel gas such as deuterium (D) and tritium (T). Fusion in the IEC device takes place via various kinds of collisions like beam-beam collision, beam–background gas collision, and beam-target collision on the electrode surfaces. Two identical anodes for the IEC chamber made from titanium (Ti) and SUS-316L stainless steel (SS) are used to study the effect of the anode material on the neutron production rate (NPR). The NPRs from the chambers are measured at different applied powers. The achieved NPRs, so far, for Ti and SS are 8.9 × 107 n/s at 5.25 kW (75 kV, 70 mA) and 2.8 × 107 n/s at 10.5 kW (70 kV, 150 mA), respectively. The normalized NPR (NPR rated to the cathode current) from the Ti chamber is three to four times higher than that from the SS chamber. We observed a better NPR for the Ti chamber compared with the SS chamber. This is explained by the fusion reaction occurring between the neutrals and D atoms adsorbed/embedded on the inner surface of the anode. Moreover, the Ti chamber shows an improvement of the NPR as a function of the operating time ranging from 1.5 to 1.75 after 25 h from the first discharge.