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
Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
Meeting Spotlight
2021 Student Conference
April 8–10, 2021
Virtual Meeting
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
Mar 2021
Jul 2020
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
March 2021
Nuclear Technology
February 2021
Fusion Science and Technology
January 2021
Latest News
NC State celebrates 70 years of nuclear engineering education
An early picture of the research reactor building on the North Carolina State University campus. The Department of Nuclear Engineering is celebrating the 70th anniversary of its nuclear engineering curriculum in 2020–2021. Photo: North Carolina State University
The Department of Nuclear Engineering at North Carolina State University has spent the 2020–2021 academic year celebrating the 70th anniversary of its becoming the first U.S. university to establish a nuclear engineering curriculum. It started in 1950, when Clifford Beck, then of Oak Ridge, Tenn., obtained support from NC State’s dean of engineering, Harold Lampe, to build the nation’s first university nuclear reactor and, in conjunction, establish an educational curriculum dedicated to nuclear engineering.
The department, host to the 2021 ANS Virtual Student Conference, scheduled for April 8–10, now features 23 tenure/tenure-track faculty and three research faculty members. “What a journey for the first nuclear engineering curriculum in the nation,” said Kostadin Ivanov, professor and department head.
J. Bucalossi, on behalf of Tore Supra Team
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 56 | Number 3 | October 2009 | Pages 1366-1380
Technical Papers | Tore Supra Special Issue | dx.doi.org/10.13182/FST09-A9183
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
One of the main missions of the Tore Supra tokamak was to open the route toward long-pulse plasma discharges in order to investigate phenomena that are involved in steady-state plasma control. In 1992, a 1-min flattop 1-MA discharge was performed with 2.5 MW of lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) power, the main limitation being the available flux. In 1996, at 0.8 MA, the duration was extended to 120 s (290 MJ injected energy), limited by in-vessel uncontrolled outgassing of inertial parts (away from the last closed flux surface) slowly heated by the plasma radiation. At the same time, fully noninductive operation was sustained at 0.6 MA for more than 1 min using two feedback loops: the control of the loop voltage (kept at zero) with the primary and the control of the plasma current with the LHCD power.Following these results, a major upgrade of the plasma-facing components was undertaken (Composants Internes et Limiteur project) and fully implemented in 2002. The vacuum vessel is now practically fully covered with actively cooled plasma-facing components monitored by a set of infrared endoscopes. In 2003, 1 GJ of injected/extracted energy was achieved in a 6-min, 0.5-MA discharge. All the plasma parameters were kept constant during the whole discharge, the plasma current being fully noninductively driven by 3 MW of LHCD. The pulse length limitation came from the aging klystron, originally designed for 30-s operation.Experimental results and analysis of the physics involved in these long-pulse discharges are reported and discussed.