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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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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
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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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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.
Charles E. Kessel, Marc A. Firestone,, Robert W. Conn
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 17 | Number 3 | May 1990 | Pages 391-411
Technical Paper | Plasma Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST90-A29216
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The control of plasma position, shape, and current in a tokamak fusion reactor is examined using linear optimal control. These advanced tokamaks are characterized by non-up-down symmetric coils and structure, thick structure surrounding the plasma, eddy currents, shaped plasmas, superconducting coils, vertically unstable plasmas, and hybrid function coils providing ohmic heating, vertical field, radial field, and shaping field. Models of the electromagnetic environment in a tokamak are derived and used to construct control gains that are tested in nonlinear simulations with initial perturbations. The issues of applying linear optimal control to advanced tokamaks are addressed, including complex equilibrium control, choice of cost functional weights, the coil voltage limit, discrete control, and order reduction. Results indicate that linear optimal control is a feasible technique for controlling advanced tokamaks where the more common classical control, relying on the scalar/orthogonalized description, will be severely strained.