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Division Spotlight
Thermal Hydraulics
The division provides a forum for focused technical dialogue on thermal hydraulic technology in the nuclear industry. Specifically, this will include heat transfer and fluid mechanics involved in the utilization of nuclear energy. It is intended to attract the highest quality of theoretical and experimental work to ANS, including research on basic phenomena and application to nuclear system design.
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
Latest News
TerraPower begins U.K. regulatory approval process
Seattle-based TerraPower signaled its interest this week in building its Natrium small modular reactor in the United Kingdom, the company announced.
TerraPower sent a letter to the U.K.’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, formally establishing its intention to enter the U.K. generic design assessment (GDA) process. This is TerraPower’s first step in deployment of its Natrium technology—a 345-MW sodium fast reactor coupled with a molten salt energy storage unit—on the international stage.
T.F. Yang, G.S. Luan,† L. Bromberg, D.R. Cohn, B.J. Braams
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 19 | Number 3 | May 1991 | Pages 857-863
Advanced Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/FST91-A29452
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A novel gaseous divertor concept is proposed consisting of gas chamber and pumping at high pressure or by reionizing the neutrals. The concept results in substantial reductions of the plasma temperature and heat flux at the target and the pumping requirement. Fluid model simulations of the scrape-off region of the Aries Reactor design by feeding the gas at the target at a flux of 1 × 1023m−2/s at 0.5 eV has shown that the electron and ion temperatures can be cooled to 20 eV. The heat flux to the target can be reduced from 80 MW/m2 to 6 MW/m2. The plasma temperature and heat flux at the divertor target are monotonically decreasing functions of the neutral incident flux. Interestingly the temperature and the heat flux also decrease with decreasing neutral gas initial flowing speed removing the need of gas jets. The backflow problem can be minimized by including a baffle plate to form a gaseous chamber. Monte-Carlo simulations using test particles have showed that the throat of the gaseous chamber can be practically plugged by the incident plasma to prevent backflow of neutrals into plasma core. The pumping can be facilitated by either operating the divertor chamber at high pressure on the order of 30 torr or reionizing the neutrals traveling to a weak toroidal field region.