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Division Spotlight
Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
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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Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
ARPA-E announces $40 million to develop transmutation technologies for UNF
The Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) announced $40 million in funding to develop cutting-edge technologies to enable the transmutation of used nuclear fuel into less-radioactive substances. According to ARPA-E, the new initiative addresses one of the agency’s core goals as outlined by Congress: to provide transformative solutions to improve the management, cleanup, and disposal of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel.
E. I. Moses
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 61 | Number 1 | January 2012 | Pages 3-8
Plenary | Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems | doi.org/10.13182/FST12-1T1
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The National Ignition Facility (NIF), the world's largest and most energetic laser system, built for studying inertial confinement fusion (ICF) and high-energy-density (HED) science, is operational at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). A primary goal of the early experimental campaign on NIF is to create the conditions necessary to demonstrate laboratory-scale thermonuclear ignition and burn with gain. NIF experiments in support of indirect-drive ignition began late in FY2009 as part of the National Ignition Campaign (NIC) effort to achieve fusion ignition. NIC is a multi-institution partnership between LLNL, General Atomics, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratory, and the University of Rochester Laboratory for Energetics (LLE). NIC also includes a variety of collaborators from universities, national laboratories as well as international collaborators. To date, all of the capabilities to conduct implosion experiments are in place with the goal of demonstrating ignition in the laboratory and developing a predictable fusion experimental platform. The results from experiments completed so far are encouraging and show promise for the achievement of ignition. Capsule implosion experiments at energies up to 1.3 MJ have demonstrated laser energetics, radiation temperatures, and symmetry control that scale to ignition conditions. Of particular importance is the demonstration of peak hohlraum temperatures near 300 eV with overall backscatter less than 15%. Important national security and basic science experiments have also been conducted on NIF. Successful demonstration of ignition and net energy gain will be a major step towards demonstrating the feasibility of Inertial Fusion Energy (IFE) and will focus the world's attention on the possibility of IFE as a carbon-free, practically limitless energy option. This paper describes the unprecedented experimental capabilities of NIF and the results achieved so far on the path toward ignition, for stockpile stewardship, and the beginning of frontier science experiments. The paper will also address plans to transition NIF to a national user facility, providing access for researchers in the international high energy density science field.