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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 Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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Latest News
WIPP’s SSCVS: A breath of fresh air
This spring, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management announced that it had achieved a major milestone by completing commissioning of the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System (SSCVS) facility—a new, state-of-the-art, large-scale ventilation system at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the DOE’s geologic repository for defense-related transuranic (TRU) waste in New Mexico.
V. G. Molinari, L. Pollachini
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 91 | Number 4 | December 1985 | Pages 458-469
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE85-A18362
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A set of equations that describes the diffusion of thermal neutrons is obtained from the energy-dependent Boltzmann equation. These equations are analogous to the phenomenological laws of the thermodynamic theory of irreversible processes and show, for instance, that as a temperature gradient produces a neutron current (Soret effect), a density gradient yields an energy flow (Dufour effect). The method is applied to the “two-temperature problem” in order to gain better insight into the thermal diffusion phenomenon. The thermal diffusion of neutrons is shown to strongly depend on the scattering law of the two media where neutrons diffuse, and it is determined that some of the conclusions previously obtained are valid only for the case of a heavy gas moderator with the scattering cross section independent of the energy.