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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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U.S. nuclear supply chain: Ready for liftoff
Craig Piercycpiercy@ans.org
This month, September 8–11, the American Nuclear Society is teaming up with the Nuclear Energy Institute to host our first-ever Nuclear Energy Conference and Expo—NECX for short—in Atlanta. This new meeting combines ANS’s Utility Working Conference and NEI’s Nuclear Energy Assembly to form what NEI CEO Maria Korsnick and I hope will be the premier nuclear industry gathering in America.
We did this because after more than four decades of relative stagnation, the U.S. nuclear supply chain is finally entering a new era of dynamic growth. This resurgence is being driven by several powerful and increasingly durable forces: the explosive demand for electricity from artificial intelligence and data centers, an unprecedented wave of public and private acceptance of—and investment in—advanced nuclear technologies, and a strong market signal for reliable, on-demand power. Add the recent Trump administration executive orders on nuclear into the mix, and you have all the makings of an accelerant-rich business environment primed for rapid expansion.
James R. Powell, Hans Ludewig, Michael Todosow, Morris Reich
Nuclear Technology | Volume 125 | Number 1 | January 1999 | Pages 104-115
Technical Paper | Accelerators | doi.org/10.13182/NT99-A2936
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Two new accelerator target and neutron filter concepts are proposed for boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) to enable production efficiencies for epithermal neutrons (i.e., neutrons leaving the treatment port and neutrons generated in the target) of ~5 to 10%. These efficiencies are much greater than in previous designs and allow BNCT facilities to use near-term, low-current (~5 mA) proton accelerators. Two target/filter designs are described and their neutronic performance analyzed. In NIFTI-1, epithermal neutrons (maximum energy of ~100 keV) are generated by a proton beam that is maintained slightly above the 1.889-MeV threshold for the 7Li(p,n)7Be reaction. As the proton beam passes through the DISCOS target, which consists of a sequential series (e.g., total of 80) of very thin (several microns) liquid-lithium films on ultrathin rotating beryllium metal foils, the protons are reaccelerated by an applied direct-current field between the foils. This reacceleration enables a high total neutron yield, ~10-4 neutrons/proton. The NIFTI-1 neutron filter, a highly scattering cross-section layer of iron-magnesium, located between the target and the treatment port, impedes neutron transmission for energies >24 keV, but it has a deep window in the scattering cross section at 24 keV. Scattering in the filter and an accompanying thin (~1 cm) hydrogenous neutron "downshifter" yield a neutron output beam with an average energy of ~10 to 20 keV. In the NIFTI-2 design, a single thick lithium target is used, with a proton beam energy (~2.5 MeV) well above the (p,n) threshold. Although the neutron yield from the target is high, ~10-4 neutrons/proton, their energy is much greater (maximum of ~800 keV) than in NIFTI-1. The high-energy neutrons inelastically scatter in a fluorine-containing material (BeF2/PbF2) placed between the target and the NIFTI filter. The neutron beam out of the treatment port has an average energy of ~30 keV. The effectiveness of the two designs for BNCT treatment is analyzed. Both exhibit good penetration in tissue (advantage depth) and tumor/healthy tissue dose (relative biological effectiveness advantage ratio) performance.
