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2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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October 2025
Latest News
Shifting the paradigm of supply chain
Chad Wolf
When I began my nuclear career, I was coached up in the nuclear energy culture of the day to “run silent, run deep,” a mindset rooted in the U.S. Navy’s submarine philosophy. That was the norm—until Fukushima.
The nuclear renaissance that many had envisioned hit a wall. The focus shifted from expansion to survival. Many utility communications efforts pivoted from silence to broadcast, showcasing nuclear energy’s elegance and reliability. Nevertheless, despite being clean baseload 24/7 power that delivered a 90 percent capacity factor or higher, nuclear energy was painted as risky and expensive (alongside energy policies and incentives that favored renewables).
Economics became a driving force threatening to shutter nuclear power. The Delivering the Nuclear Promise initiative launched in 2015 challenged the industry to sustain high performance yet cut costs by up to 30 percent.
R. S. Massey, R. G. Watt, P. G. Weber, G. A. Wurden, D. A. Baker, C. J. Buchenauer, L. C. Burkhardt, T. Cayton, J. N. DiMarco, J. N. Downing, R. M. Erickson, R. F. Gribble, A. Haberstich, R. B. Howell, J. C. Ingraham, E. M. Little, G. Miller, C. P. Munson, J. A. Phillips, M. M. Pickrell, K. F. Schoenberg, A. E. Schofield, D. M. Weldon
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 8 | Number 1 | July 1985 | Pages 1571-1580
Alternative Concept | Proceedings of the Sixth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (San Francisco, California, March 3-7, 1985) | doi.org/10.13182/FST85-A39985
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The present status of research on the ZT-40M Reversed-Field Pinch (RFP) will be described. RFP discharges have been sustained for times (27 ms) >> the classical resistive diffusion time, implying the existence of a flux-sustainment mechanism (“dynamo”). This mechanism opens the possibility for a steady-state RFP reactor utilizing a unique form of non-inductive current drive. Te > 500 eV has been obtained for 400 kA aischarges with ∼ 4 × 1019 m−3. Total energy confinement time τE has reached 0.7 ms with a Lawson parameter of 5 × 1016 m−3 s for discharges with = 8×1019 m−3 and Te = 330 eV at a plasma current of 330 kA and 0.33 T total confining field at the wall. Reactor-like βθ ∼ 10–20% is routinely obtained for plasma currents from 60–400 kA (β ∼ βθ/2). Scaling of τE ∼ I(2.2±0.4) is found, more than adequate for a compact RFP reactor.
