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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.
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Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2025)
February 3–6, 2025
Amelia Island, FL|Omni Amelia Island Resort
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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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Christmas Night
Twas the night before Christmas when all through the houseNo electrons were flowing through even my mouse.
All devices were plugged in by the chimney with careWith the hope that St. Nikola Tesla would share.
S. K. Ho, Max E. Fenstermacher
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 16 | Number 2 | September 1989 | Pages 185-196
Technical Paper | Plasma Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST89-A29147
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
It is desirable for the plasma operating points of future Engineering Test Reactor (ETR) tokamaks to be in parameter regimes that are inherently stable to thermal fluctuations; in other words, thermal equilibrium is maintained by properties of the power balance terms themselves without an active burn control system. Methodologies are presented for calculating thermally stable operating points and scenarios to achieve these conditions. Results are given for an ETR tokamak with major radius R0 = 5.8 m in both the ignition and current-drive modes. Though the results are sensitive to the form of the energy confinement scaling law used, for enhancements over L-mode confinement by factors of 1.5 to 2.0, stable operating regions in (n, T) space have been identified for ignited operation with T ≥ 20 keV and for current-drive steady-state operation with T ≈ 25 keV. Burn dynamics simulations and discussion of critical issues are also presented. The analyses are general and should be applicable to a wide variety of deuterium-tritium burning tokamaks.