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Division Spotlight
Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
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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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Sam Altman steps down as Oklo board chair
Advanced nuclear company Oklo Inc. has new leadership for its board of directors as billionaire Sam Altman is stepping down from the position he has held since 2015. The move is meant to open new partnership opportunities with OpenAI, where Altman is CEO, and other artificial intelligence companies.
D. Cai, P. Titus, C. Rana, H. Zhang, S. Sheckman
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 77 | Number 7 | November 2021 | Pages 617-628
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2021.1921362
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The National Spherical Torus eXperiment (NSTX) has undergone a major upgrade to NSTX-U at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. NSTX-U will double the toroidal field, plasma current, and neutral beam injection heating power, as well as significantly increase the pulse duration. The plasma-facing components (PFCs) in the NSTX-U vacuum vessel are mainly graphite, which has a total surface area of about 41 m2. To achieve high vacuum and reduce impurity from PFCs during operation, it is important to bake the graphite parts and remove most of the moisture absorbed by graphite during installation. Typical bakeout for NSTX-U lasts about 3 to 4 weeks. The NSTX-U inner vacuum vessel, i.e., the center stack casing, will be heated to about 450°C by passing 8 KA direct current through it during bakeout. The design of the bakeout bus directly attached to the casing flanges at vessel top and bottom are covered in detail in this paper. At the vessel top, the water-cooled bus terminal is subject to high thermal growth (about 18 mm in the vertical direction and 3 mm in the radial direction). At the vessel bottom, the bakeout bus must withstand 120 KA of halo current during disruption, as well as dislocation from thermal growth. This paper covers the design to address all these challenges. A machined CuCrZr terminal with internal water-cooling channels was used to prevent any brazing work in high stress areas. Detailed analysis will also be covered to show that the proposed design can satisfy thermal, structural, and fatigue requirements during bakeout and operation.