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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Fusion Science and Technology
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Remembering ANS member Gil Brown
Brown
The nuclear community is mourning the loss of Gilbert Brown, who passed away on July 11 at the age of 77 following a battle with cancer.
Brown, an American Nuclear Society Fellow and an ANS member for nearly 50 years, joined the faculty at Lowell Technological Institute—now the University of Massachusetts–Lowell—in 1973 and remained there for the rest of his career. He eventually became director of the UMass Lowell nuclear engineering program. After his retirement, he remained an emeritus professor at the university.
Sukesh Aghara, chair of the Nuclear Engineering Department Heads Organization, noted in an email to NEDHO members and others that “Gil was a relentless advocate for nuclear energy and a deeply respected member of our professional community. He was also a kind and generous friend—and one of the reasons I ended up at UMass Lowell. He served the university with great dedication. . . . Within NEDHO, Gil was a steady presence and served for many years as our treasurer. His contributions to nuclear engineering education and to this community will be dearly missed.”
Letizia Melaragni, M. Scarpari, S. Carusotti, M. Notazio, R. Lombroni, G. Ramogida, S. Migliori, A. Frattolillo, M. Angelucci, G. Calabrò
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 81 | Number 6 | August 2025 | Pages 515-529
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2025.2476842
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Vertical displacement events (VDEs) are among the most dangerous types of disruptions that can take place in a tokamak. They cause a fast release of both thermal and electromagnetic (EM) energy on the plasma-facing components, also inducing eddy and halo currents in the passive components touched by the relatively cold plasma. In the high EM field, these may result in enormous, localized loads. To reduce the impact of disruptions on the structures adjacent the plasma, a disruption mitigation system (DMS) is needed. In this frame, the Divertor Tokamak Test (DTT), which is being built in Frascati (Italy) and is designed to test different divertor solutions for DEMO and ITER, has been proposed to be equipped with a shattered pellet injection (SPI) system as the main DMS. Here, the initial design of DTT SPI and preliminary predictive disruptive plasma scenarios, simulated by the MAXFEA code, will be discussed. A detailed disruption database will be presented, built with a methodological approach. For a single-null configuration, the reference DTT parameters include a plasma current Ipla of 5.5 MA and a magnetic field Bt of 5.85 T, with major radius R and minor radius a of 2.19 and 0.7 m, respectively. In this case, i.e. an unmitigated disruption scenario, the forces acting on the vacuum vessel may reach up to −10.6 MN. Although the structural integrity of DTT is guaranteed under these EM loads, reducing them is recommended in the case of extensive campaigns of disruption studies. Therefore, mitigated ones will be discussed in this work. The current and integral EM forces induced during unmitigated and mitigated disruptions will be compared to give a preliminary evaluation of the effects of VDEs on the tokamak components in view of the DTT SPI system design.