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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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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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General Kenneth Nichols and the Manhattan Project
Nichols
The Oak Ridger has published the latest in a series of articles about General Kenneth D. Nichols, the Manhattan Project, and the 1954 Atomic Energy Act. The series has been produced by Nichols’ grandniece Barbara Rogers Scollin and Oak Ridge (Tenn.) city historian David Ray Smith. Gen. Nichols (1907–2000) was the district engineer for the Manhattan Engineer District during the Manhattan Project.
As Smith and Scollin explain, Nichols “had supervision of the research and development connected with, and the design, construction, and operation of, all plants required to produce plutonium-239 and uranium-235, including the construction of the towns of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Richland, Washington. The responsibility of his position was massive as he oversaw a workforce of both military and civilian personnel of approximately 125,000; his Oak Ridge office became the center of the wartime atomic energy’s activities.”
J. F. Lyon, L. P. Ku, L. El-Guebaly, L. Bromberg, L. M. Waganer, M. C. Zarnstorff, ARIES-CS Team
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 54 | Number 3 | October 2008 | Pages 694-724
Technical Paper | Aries-Cs Special Issue | doi.org/10.13182/FST54-694
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A stellarator systems/optimization code is used to optimize the ARIES-CS fusion power plant parameters for minimum cost of electricity subject to a large number of physics, engineering, and in-vessel component constraints for a compact stellarator configuration. Different physics models, reactor component models, and costing algorithms are used to test sensitivities to models and assumptions. The most important factors determining the size of the fusion power core are the allowable neutron and radiative power fluxes to the wall, the distance needed between the edge of the plasma and the nonplanar magnetic field coils for the intervening components, and an adequate tritium breeding ratio. The magnetic field and coil parameters are determined from both plasma performance and constraints on the Nb3Sn superconductor. The same costing approach and algorithms used in previous ARIES studies are used with updated material costs. The result is a compact stellarator reactor with a major radius close to that of tokamaks. A one-dimensional power balance code is used to study the path to ignition and the effect of different plasma and confinement assumptions on plasma performance for the reference plasma and coil configuration. A number of variations are studied that affect the size and cost of the fusion power core: maximum field at the coils, component cost penalties, a different blanket and shield approach, alternative plasma and coil configurations, etc. Comparisons are made with some earlier ARIES power plant studies. A number of issues for the development of compact quasi-axisymmetric stellarators are identified.