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Division Spotlight
Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
Meeting Spotlight
Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2025)
February 3–6, 2025
Amelia Island, FL|Omni Amelia Island Resort
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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Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
A more open future for nuclear research
A growing number of institutional, national, and funder mandates are requiring researchers to make their published work immediately publicly accessible, through either open repositories or open access (OA) publications. In addition, both private and public funders are developing policies, such as those from the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the European Commission, that ask researchers to make publicly available at the time of publication as much of their underlying data and other materials as possible. These, combined with movement in the scientific community toward embracing open science principles (seen, for example, in the dramatic rise of preprint servers like arXiv), demonstrate a need for a different kind of publishing outlet.
Yu. Turkin, H. Maassberg, C. D. Beidler, J. Geiger, N. B. Marushchenko
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 50 | Number 3 | October 2006 | Pages 387-394
Technical Paper | Stellarators | doi.org/10.13182/FST06-5
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The magnetic configuration of the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) stellarator is optimized following a set of criteria including a rotational transform profile with low shear and minimized bootstrap current that must be controlled for proper functioning of the island divertor. This paper studies the compensation of residual bootstrap current by using electron cyclotron current drive (ECCD). The modeling shows that the loop voltage induced by ECCD leads to a redistribution of the current density with a diffusion time of ~2 s. The relaxation time of the total current is much longer, however - for W7-X plasma parameters the total toroidal current reaches steady state after several L/R times requiring hundreds of seconds. In order to keep the toroidal current and its profile in the acceptable range, a feed-forward or predictive control method using ECCD as actuator is proposed. The main steps are as follows: (a) calculate the bootstrap current distribution using plasma parameters measured in the online transport analysis and (b) determine and apply ECCD as needed. For the current control to work properly and to avoid long relaxation times, the reaction time of the control loop must be less than the current skin time.
