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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.
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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
Fan Zhang, J. Wesley Hines, Jamie B. Coble
Nuclear Technology | Volume 206 | Number 7 | July 2020 | Pages 939-950
Technical Paper – Special section on the 2019 ANS Student Conference | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2019.1666599
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Most nuclear power plants (NPPs) under construction or under design are expected to deploy largely digital instrumentation and control (I&C) systems. Current fleets are increasingly looking toward converting to digital I&C systems due to the advantages of precise control, economic operation, and ease of procurement over conventional analog I&C systems. With all the benefits digital I&C systems bring, challenging cybersecurity concerns are introduced as well. Cyberattacks targeted at industrial control systems have grown in both frequency and capability in recent years. Despite efforts to air-gap digital I&C systems, NPPs can be vulnerable to these cyberattacks, as evidenced by recent cyber incidents at nuclear facilities. Cybersecurity of NPPs should be addressed in three complementary thrusts: cyberattack prevention, detection, and response. Considering the requirements of digital I&C systems, we propose a novel cybersecurity solution platform that consists of a data collection and extraction system, a multilayer cyberattack detection system, a cause analysis system with dynamic risk assessment, a cyberattack response system, and a main control room display system. This architecture also promotes cooperation between information technology experts and the operation technology team to improve cybersecurity by integrating process data together with traditional host system and network data in a unified platform. This paper presents the proposed cybersecurity architecture and demonstrates its efficacy with a simulated cyberattack on a cyber-physical system testbed. Together with traditional intrusion prevention methods and rule-based intrusion detection systems, this platform provides a solution for prevention, detection, and response to cyberattacks that is congruous with the defense-in-depth strategies of other NPP safety and security systems.