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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
In transition: Commercializing fusion power
Commercial fusion power is closer than ever. There are now around 30 U.S. fusion companies, several of which claim to be on track to connect to the grid as early as the 2030s.
Tokamak and laser inertial confinement approaches benefit from decades of research at facilities such as the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and ITER, with alternative concepts including stellarator, magnetic mirror, and Z-pinch confinement also making notable progress as private and government funding for fusion increases.
S. Prasad, S. D. Clarke, S. A. Pozzi, E. W. Larsen
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 172 | Number 1 | September 2012 | Pages 78-86
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE11-60
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A response matrix method (RMM) is applied to Monte Carlo simulations to efficiently compute neutron pulse height distributions (PHDs) in organic scintillation detectors. The PHD calculations and their associated uncertainty are compared for a polyethylene-shielded and lead-shielded 252Cf source for three different techniques: fully analog MCNPX-PoliMi, the RMM, and the RMM with source biasing. The RMM with source biasing reduces computation time or improves the figure of merit on average by a factor of 600 for polyethylene shielding and a factor of 300 for lead shielding (when compared to the fully analog calculation). The simulated neutron PHDs show good agreement with the laboratory measurements, thereby validating the RMM.