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Division Spotlight
Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
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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Fusion Science and Technology
May 2025
Latest News
Argonne’s METL gears up to test more sodium fast reactor components
Argonne National Laboratory has successfully swapped out an aging cold trap in the sodium test loop called METL (Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop), the Department of Energy announced April 23. The upgrade is the first of its kind in the United States in more than 30 years, according to the DOE, and will help test components and operations for the sodium-cooled fast reactors being developed now.
S. Moriyama, T. Fujii, H. Kimura, K. Anno, K. Yokokura, S. Shinozaki, M. Terakado, S. Hiranai
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 42 | Number 2 | September-November 2002 | Pages 467-481
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST02-A241
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Research and developments on the ion cyclotron range of frequency (ICRF) heating system in the JT-60 upgrade (JT-60U) are presented. The developments and experiences on the operation of the ICRF heating system contribute to its upgrade and to future ICRF heating systems in ITER. The ICRF heating system for JT-60U started operation in January 1992. RF power up to 7 MW for 1.1 sec at 116 MHz has been coupled to a plasma as a result of the developments described in this paper. New high power tetrodes having pyrolitic graphite grids for higher dissipation of screen and control grids were tested in the ICRF amplifier, and 1.7 MW of the output power at 131 MHz for 5.4 seconds was achieved. This was the highest power level for fusion research above 110 MHz in 1990. A pair of phased loop antenna arrays (2 × 2) showed sufficiently high coupling resistance. To keep the impedance matching between the antenna and the transmission line, a frequency feedback control (FFC) system was developed, and its effectiveness was proved to couple high power RF continuously to the variable plasma. In ITER, enhancement of dielectric loss tangent of ceramics due to neutron irradiation will limit power injection capability of the antenna significantly. To solve this problem, an all-metal support (AMS) was developed in the JT-60U ICRF heating system as a substitute for a ceramic support of a central conductor of a coaxial antenna feeder in the ITER ICRF antenna.
