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Division Spotlight
Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
Meeting Spotlight
Nuclear and Emerging Technologies for Space (NETS 2025)
May 4–8, 2025
Huntsville, AL|Huntsville Marriott and the Space & Rocket Center
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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May 2025
Latest News
Delivering new nuclear on time, the first time
Mark Rinehart
The nuclear industry is entering a period of renewed urgency, driven by the need for stable baseload power, heightened energy security concerns, and expanded defense infrastructure. Now more than ever, we must deliver new nuclear projects on time and on budget to maintain public trust and industry momentum.
The importance of execution certainty cannot be overstated—public trust, industry investment, and future deployment all hinge on our ability to deliver these projects successfully. However, history has shown that cost overruns and schedule delays have eroded confidence in the industry’s ability to deliver nuclear construction. As we embark on many first-of-a-kind (FOAK) reactor builds, fuel cycle infrastructure projects, and extensive defense-related nuclear projects, we must ensure that execution certainty is no longer an aspiration—it is an expectation.
Ronald L. Miller
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 56 | Number 2 | August 2009 | Pages 940-944
Power Plants, Demo, and Next Steps | Eighteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Part 2) | doi.org/10.13182/FST09-A9031
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The characterization of the projected power-plant embodiment of the Reversed-Field Pinch (RFP) since the multi-institutional TITAN Study (c1990) is modified by new information and modern approaches used in recent conceptual design studies of various fusion embodiments in the areas of plasma physics/engineering, technology, safety and environmental impact, and costing. The basic features of a D-T burning, toroidal magnetic-confinement RFP system in the 1-GWe class remain, with modifications deriving from experimentally improved energy confinement scaling, re-examination of current-drive options required for steady operation, and other operational features, including the emphasis placed on high power density as a route to compactness and direct cost reduction. The relative competitiveness depends, as always, on plasma physics performance (e.g., beta, energy confinement time, fusion power density, and operational scenario) required technologies (magnetic coils, plasma-facing components, blanket, and power cycle), recirculating power fraction, plant availability (i.e., scheduled and forced outages), radioactive waste disposal, etc. The key aspects of a DEMO/first-commercial RFP fusion power core are examined in the systems context of competitiveness and public acceptance.