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Division Spotlight
Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy
The mission of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy Division (NNPD) is to promote the peaceful use of nuclear technology while simultaneously preventing the diversion and misuse of nuclear material and technology through appropriate safeguards and security, and promotion of nuclear nonproliferation policies. To achieve this mission, the objectives of the NNPD are to: Promote policy that discourages the proliferation of nuclear technology and material to inappropriate entities. Provide information to ANS members, the technical community at large, opinion leaders, and decision makers to improve their understanding of nuclear nonproliferation issues. Become a recognized technical resource on nuclear nonproliferation, safeguards, and security issues. Serve as the integration and coordination body for nuclear nonproliferation activities for the ANS. Work cooperatively with other ANS divisions to achieve these objective nonproliferation policies.
Meeting Spotlight
Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
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
New company has big nuclear plans
The recent startup The Nuclear Company announced plans this month to deploy a series of nuclear reactors by the mid-2030s using a “design-once, build-many approach.”
The venture-capital-funded firm wants to use proven, licensed technology and target sites that already have some level of licensing approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build enough reactors to produce 6 gigawatts of electricity across the country.
James Blanchard, Carl Martin
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 75 | Number 8 | November 2019 | Pages 918-929
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2019.1602399
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Fusion Nuclear Science Facility (FNSF) is an intermediate step in the path to commercial fusion energy that will accommodate the extreme fusion nuclear environment and the complex integration of components and their environment as well as the relevant nuclear science and plasma physics. The transient thermal and electromagnetic loads on plasma-facing components in FNSF have been shown to offer significant design challenges that are difficult to meet with solid walls. Hence, the project team is investigating the feasibility of using liquid walls to ameliorate some of the risk associated with solid wall designs.
In this paper, we examine the effects these transient loads will have on a liquid wall. Mass loss is considered using standard evaporation models accounting for transient surface temperatures. The heat transfer is modeled with a one-dimensional transient conduction model that accounts for evaporative losses. No liquid motion is considered. Loss rates of tens of microns per edge-localized mode (ELM) are predicted. Peak heat fluxes are treated parametrically to help address the substantial uncertainty inherent in models for the timing and spatial distribution of the heat deposited during the ELM. Boiling is considered but is found to not be of consequence, as the temperatures required for homogeneous nucleation of bubbles are substantially higher than a conventional boiling point. It should be noted that all evaporation calculations are for evaporation into a vacuum. In the future, we intend to incorporate these evaporation rates into an edge physics code to self-consistently model the net mass flows at the liquid surface in a tokamak.
Electromagnetic effects due to ELMs and disruptions are accounted for by assuming a stationary plasma quench. ELMs are addressed assuming a small fluctuation in the plasma current during an event, while disruptions are addressed assuming a full quench of the current. The variation in the plasma current induces currents in the conducting fluid, leading to forces on the liquid (and subsequent motion). A commercial finite element code is used to calculate the induced currents and forces associated with a static liquid divertor. Liquid motion is not considered in this calculation, so no magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) currents are addressed, but a simplified model is presented to estimate the impact of these currents on the liquid motion. Based on these calculations, the acceleration of the liquid is expected to be quite high, and containment of the liquid is likely not possible. The MHD effects appear to be relatively minor.