ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Division Spotlight
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
Meeting Spotlight
2025 ANS Annual Conference
June 15–18, 2025
Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott 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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Jun 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
July 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Smarter waste strategies: Helping deliver on the promise of advanced nuclear
At COP28, held in Dubai in 2023, a clear consensus emerged: Nuclear energy must be a cornerstone of the global clean energy transition. With electricity demand projected to soar as we decarbonize not just power but also industry, transport, and heat, the case for new nuclear is compelling. More than 20 countries committed to tripling global nuclear capacity by 2050. In the United States alone, the Department of Energy forecasts that the country’s current nuclear capacity could more than triple, adding 200 GW of new nuclear to the existing 95 GW by mid-century.
Sümer Sahin, Abdulmuttalip Sahinaslan, Metin Kaya
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 34 | Number 2 | September 1998 | Pages 95-108
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST98-A56
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Liquids may be used between the magnetic confined fusion plasma and the first wall of the plasma chamber to reduce the material damage through displacements per atom (dpa) and helium gas production. This could extend the lifetime of the first wall in a magnetic fusion energy (MFE) reactor to a plant lifetime of ~30 yr.Neutronic calculations are carried out in S16P3 approximation for a typical HYLIFE-II blanket geometry, an inertial fusion energy (IFE) reactor design. This provides a comparison of the damage data between compressed and uncompressed targets, for IFE and MFE applications, respectively, by using Flibe (Li2BeF4), natural lithium, and Li17Pb83 eutectic as both coolant and wall protection. In the consideration of mainline design criteria, including sufficient tritium breeding ratio (TBR = 1.1), material protection (dpa < 100 and He < 500 parts per million by atom in 30 yr of operation), and shallow burial index, coolant zone thickness values are found to be 60 cm for Flibe, 171 cm for natural lithium, and 158 cm for Li17Pb83 with Type 304 stainless steel (SS-304) as structural material.Material damage investigations are extended to structural materials made of SiC and graphite for the same blanket to obtain waste material suitable for shallow burial after decommissioning of the power plant.The dpa values and helium production rates in graphite are comparable to those in SS-304. However, they are higher in SiC than in SS-304 and graphite.The average neutron heating density in the external 1.6-mm-thick SS-304 shell of the investigated blanket beyond the SiO2 insulation foam decreases rapidly with increasing thickness of the Flibe coolant. With DR = 60 and 80 cm, it becomes only 594 and 95 W/cm3, respectively. The design limit for heat generation density in superconducting coils for magnetic fusion is 80 W/cm3. A very important result of this work is that a blanket with liquid-curtain protection would not require extra shielding for superconducting coils around the fusion plasma chamber. This could result in an important simplification of the design.
