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Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
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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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.
V. Badalassi, A. Sircar, J. M. Solberg, J. W. Bae, K. Borowiec, P. Huang, S. Smolentsev, E. Peterson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 79 | Number 3 | April 2023 | Pages 345-379
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2022.2151818
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Fusion Energy Reactor Models Integrator (FERMI) is an integrated simulation environment under development for the coupled simulation of the plasma, first wall, and blanket of fusion reactor designs. The FERMI goals are to shorten the overall design cycle while guaranteeing unprecedented accuracy, thus integrating fusion design activities, facilitating an optimal reactor design, and reducing development risks. These goals are achieved by coupling single-physics solvers into a multiphysics simulation environment (FERMI). The Integrated Plasma Simulator (IPS)–FASt TRANsport (IPS-FASTRAN) simulation framework is used for the following: plasma physics, MCNP/Shift codes for neutron and photon transport, OpenFoam for computational fluid dynamics and magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), HyPerComp Incompressible MHD solver for Arbitrary Geometry (HIMAG) for dual-coolant lead-lithium (DCLL) blankets, and DIABLO for structural mechanics simulations. These codes are coupled using the open-source library named precise Code Interaction Coupling Environment (preCICE). FERMI’s features are tested with the analysis of the liquid immersion blanket (LIB) [proposed in the Affordable Robust Compact (ARC)–class tokamak design], the DCLL blanket [proposed in the Fusion Pilot Plant (FPP) design], and other benchmark cases. The calculated figures of merit are the tritium breeding ratio, material activation, displacements per atom, shutdown dose rate, heat deposited in the vacuum vessel and blanket, temperature hot spots, and displacements caused by swelling and creep. A critical technical problem is multiphysics code coupling, which is tackled here, and the first three-dimensional (3D) simulations of the DCLL-FPP and LIB-ARC blankets are presented. To the authors’ knowledge, FERMI represents the first effort to perform 3D simulations of nuclear fusion first wall and blankets in a fully coupled multiphysics manner.