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Division Spotlight
Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
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
ANS designates Armour Research Foundation Reactor as Nuclear Historic Landmark
The American Nuclear Society presented the Illinois Institute of Technology with a plaque last week to officially designate the Armour Research Foundation Reactor a Nuclear Historic Landmark, following the Society’s decision to confer the status onto the reactor in September 2024.
Samuel G. Varnado, Gary A. Carlson
Nuclear Technology | Volume 29 | Number 3 | June 1976 | Pages 415-427
Technical Paper | Fusion Reactor Material / Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT76-A31606
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Electrical power generation by controlled fusion may provide a partial solution to the world’s long-term energy supply problem. Achievement of a fusion reaction requires the confinement of an extremely hot plasma for a time long enough to allow fuel burnup. Inertial confinement of the plasma may be possible through the use of tightly focused, relativistic electron beams to compress a deuterium-tritium (D-T) fuel pellet. A power balance analysis applied to a conceptual electron-beam fusion power plant indicates that energy gains of between 5 and 16 are required from the fuel pellet for economic feasibility. To deliver an average power of 100 MW(e), the reactor must operate at a pulse rate of ∼35 Hz, assuming an electron-beam energy of 1 MJ per pulse. The use of a fusion-fission hybrid reactor substantially relaxes the pellet gain requirement, and allows breakeven plant operation at near unit pellet gain. Calculations show that x rays and ions will comprise an important part of the total energy release (30% for a pellet gain of 7.9). The x-ray radiation has an ∼350-eV blackbody spectrum. The energy of ions from the gold shell surrounding the D-T fuel lies between 100 and 500 keV. Consideration of the response of diode and first-wall materials to the incident x-ray and ion fluxes shows that wet walls of lithium or tin over niobium are not desirable, due to spallation or other stress wave damage, engineering complexity, and excessive materials usage and cost. A solid wall protected by a graphite cloth shield offers the maximum protection to the surrounding blanket structure.