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2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
October 2025
Latest News
Empowering the next generation: ANS’s newest book focuses on careers in nuclear energy
A new career guide for the nuclear energy industry is now available: The Nuclear Empowered Workforce by Earnestine Johnson. Drawing on more than 30 years of experience across 16 nuclear facilities, Johnson offers a practical, insightful look into some of the many career paths available in commercial nuclear power. To mark the release, Johnson sat down with Nuclear News for a wide-ranging conversation about her career, her motivation for writing the book, and her advice for the next generation of nuclear professionals.
When Johnson began her career at engineering services company Stone & Webster, she entered a field still reeling from the effects of the Three Mile Island incident in 1979, nearly 15 years earlier. Her hiring cohort was the first group of new engineering graduates the company had brought on since TMI, a reflection of the industry-wide pause in nuclear construction. Her first long-term assignment—at the Millstone site in Waterford, Conn., helping resolve design issues stemming from TMI—marked the beginning of a long and varied career that spanned positions across the country.
Muhammad Abdullah, Ahmad Ali, Riaz Khan, Osama Abdur Rehman, Zia-ur- Rehman, Shahab Ud-Din Khan, Sehrish Shakir, Shahzaib Zahid, Muhammad Ismail, Rafaqat Ali, Sarfraz Ahmad, Shahid Hussain
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 80 | Number 6 | August 2024 | Pages 731-740
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2023.2241004
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The MT-II is a small spherical tokamak that is currently under construction at the Pakistan Tokamak Plasma Research Institute. Wall conditioning of the MT-II vacuum vessel (VV) is an essential step to achieve a good quality vacuum for plasma experiments. This study presents an overview of the wall-conditioning techniques implemented on the MT-II VV, including baking and glow discharge cleaning (GDC). Prior to wall conditioning, the system is checked via a helium leak test machine and residual gas analyzer (RGA) to identify and remove leaks. The VV walls are baked at ~180 °C to get rapid desorption of water vapors and other impurities. After the baking process, the partial pressure of most of the carbon- and oxygen-containing impurities is reduced. In particular, the partial pressure of water vapors is reduced by 93%. Consequently, the total leak and outgassing rate is significantly reduced. To further improve the vacuum condition in the vessel, hydrogen GDC is carried out. The fill hydrogen pressure and anode voltage are optimized to get a stable glow discharge. The RGA scan shows that GDC reduces the partial pressure of H2O, O2, and CO2 by 57%, 63%, and 51%, respectively. The results signify that baking and GDC are effective techniques for wall conditioning of the MT-II VV.
