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The mission of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy Division (NNPD) is to promote the peaceful use of nuclear technology while simultaneously preventing the diversion and misuse of nuclear material and technology through appropriate safeguards and security, and promotion of nuclear nonproliferation policies. To achieve this mission, the objectives of the NNPD are to: Promote policy that discourages the proliferation of nuclear technology and material to inappropriate entities. Provide information to ANS members, the technical community at large, opinion leaders, and decision makers to improve their understanding of nuclear nonproliferation issues. Become a recognized technical resource on nuclear nonproliferation, safeguards, and security issues. Serve as the integration and coordination body for nuclear nonproliferation activities for the ANS. Work cooperatively with other ANS divisions to achieve these objective nonproliferation policies.
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Ohio Senate votes to repeal nuclear plant subsidies
After months of unsuccessful efforts by Ohio lawmakers to contend with the fallout from H.B. 6—the now-infamous nuclear subsidies bill signed into law in 2019—the state’s senate on March 3 passed a measure, S.B. 44, to repeal those subsidies. The vote was 32–0.
For those who may need reminding, federal prosecutors on July 21, 2020, arrested Larry Householder, then speaker of the Ohio House, and four lobbyists and political consultants for their involvement in an alleged $61 million corruption and racketeering scheme aimed at guaranteeing passage of H.B. 6, whose subsidies had kept Ohio’s Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear power plants from premature closure.
H.B. 6 established a seven-year program to charge the state’s electricity consumers fees to support payments of about $150 million annually to the plants’ operator, Energy Harbor Corporation, then known as FirstEnergy Solutions (FES). FES had announced in March 2018 that it would be forced to close Davis-Besse and Perry without some form of support from the state. (The payments to Energy Harbor were blocked last December by an Ohio Supreme Court injunction, which complemented an earlier lower court ruling.)
S. M. González de Vicente, A. Moroño, E. R. Hodgson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 56 | Number 1 | July 2009 | Pages 125-128
Plasma Engineering and Diagnostics | Eighteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Part 1) | dx.doi.org/10.13182/FST09-A8888
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Reliable plasma diagnostic systems are key elements for an efficient and safe operation of future fusion reactors. These systems use particular components, such as ceramic insulators, dielectric and optical windows, optical fibres and complete sensor assemblies. These materials, in addition to neutron and gamma radiation, will be subjected to bombardment by low energy ions and neutral particles. Alumina (Al2O3) is one of the insulating candidate materials to be used in diagnostic systems for ITER, where it will play important roles as electrical insulation and in optical components. Possible material damage has been examined by implanting He into sapphire at different temperatures to simulate ion bombardment. The electrical conductivity in the implanted region increases by more than nine orders of magnitude. Such severe surface electrical degradation is due to the loss of oxygen from the implanted surface. The loss of oxygen also reduces the material band gap in the surface region and as a consequence the optical transmission is severely reduced. Implantation temperature plays an important role, where one observes that although electrical degradation is higher for higher temperature implantation, optical degradation is lower. The electrical conductivity in the implanted region increases by more than nine orders of magnitude. Such severe surface electrical degradation is due to the loss of oxygen from the implanted surface. The loss of oxygen also reduces the material band gap in the surface region and as a consequence the optical transmission is severely reduced. Implantation temperature plays an important role, where one observes that although electrical degradation is higher for higher temperature implantation, optical degradation is lower.
