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Division Spotlight
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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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!
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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.
L. B. C. Worth, R. J. H. Pearce, J. Bruce, J. Banks, S. Scales
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 48 | Number 1 | July-August 2005 | Pages 370-373
Technical Paper | Tritium Science and Technology - Tritium Measurement, Monitoring, and Accountancy | dx.doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A945
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The accuracy of process measurements of tritium with conventional ion chambers is often affected by surface tritium contamination. The measurement of tritium in the exhaust of the JET torus is particularly difficult due to surface contamination with highly tritiated hydrocarbons. JET's first unsuccessful attempt to overcome the contamination problem was to use an ion chamber, with a heating element as the chamber wall so that it could be periodically decontaminated by baking. The newly developed ion chamber works on the principle of minimising the surface area within the boundary of the anode and cathode.This paper details the design of the ion chamber, which utilises a grid of 50-micron tungsten wire to define the ion chamber wall and the collector electrode. The effective surface area which, by contamination, is able to effect the measurement of tritium within the process gas has been reduced by a factor of ~200 over a conventional ion chamber. It is concluded that the new process ion chamber enables sensitive accurate tritium measurements free from contamination issues. It will be a powerful new tool for future tritium experiments both to improve tritium tracking and to help in the understanding of tritium retention issues.