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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.
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2025 ANS Annual Conference
June 15–18, 2025
Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott Downtown
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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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High-temperature plumbing and advanced reactors
The use of nuclear fission power and its role in impacting climate change is hotly debated. Fission advocates argue that short-term solutions would involve the rapid deployment of Gen III+ nuclear reactors, like Vogtle-3 and -4, while long-term climate change impact would rely on the creation and implementation of Gen IV reactors, “inherently safe” reactors that use passive laws of physics and chemistry rather than active controls such as valves and pumps to operate safely. While Gen IV reactors vary in many ways, one thing unites nearly all of them: the use of exotic, high-temperature coolants. These fluids, like molten salts and liquid metals, can enable reactor engineers to design much safer nuclear reactors—ultimately because the boiling point of each fluid is extremely high. Fluids that remain liquid over large temperature ranges can provide good heat transfer through many demanding conditions, all with minimal pressurization. Although the most apparent use for these fluids is advanced fission power, they have the potential to be applied to other power generation sources such as fusion, thermal storage, solar, or high-temperature process heat.1–3
R. V. Jensen, D. E. Post, D. L. Jassby
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 65 | Number 2 | February 1978 | Pages 282-289
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE78-A27157
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Using the most recent evaluations of power loss by impurity radiation, we have calculated the maximum permitted impurity concentration for various species as a function of Q, the ratio of deuterium-tritium (D-T) fusion power to injected beam power. These criteria for maximum impurity concentration must be satisfied before applying the usual neτE versus Ti conditions for obtaining a given Q value. For ,l the critical impurity concentration fcz varies as Z−2.2 to −2.5. The tolerable concentration of medium- and high-Z impurities for operation at low can be at least one order of magnitude larger than the concentration allowed for ignition, provided that the plasma temperature is maintained by reacting ion beams.
