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Nuclear Installations Safety
Devoted specifically to the safety of nuclear installations and the health and safety of the public, this division seeks a better understanding of the role of safety in the design, construction and operation of nuclear installation facilities. The division also promotes engineering and scientific technology advancement associated with the safety of such facilities.
Meeting Spotlight
Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
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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Latest News
Vogtle-3 shuts down for valve issue
One of the new Vogtle units in Georgia was shut down unexpectedly on Monday last week for a valve issue that has since been investigated and repaired. According to multiple local news outlets, Georgia Power reported on July 17 that Unit 3 was back in service.
Southern Company spokesperson Jacob Hawkins confirmed that Vogtle-3 went off line at 9:25 p.m. local time on July 8 “due to lowering water levels in the steam generators caused by a valve issue on one of the three main feedwater pumps.”
D.Q. Hwang, C.M. Fortgang
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 8 | Number 1 | July 1985 | Pages 759-766
Plasma Heating, Impurity Control, and Fueling | Proceedings of the Sixth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (San Francisco, California, March 3-7, 1985) | doi.org/10.13182/FST85-A40128
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
With the recent promising results of plasma heating using electromagnetic waves (EM waves) in the ion cyclotron range of frequency (ICRF) on the Princeton Large Torus (PLT) tokamak the feasibility of employing ICRF heating to a reactor-like magnetic confinement device is increasing. The high power ICRF experiments funded on JET (Joint European Torus in England) and JT-60 (in Japan) will have rf source power in the range of 10-30 MW. The time scale for the duration of the rf pulse will range from seconds up to steady-state. The development of new rf components that can transmit and launch such high power, long pulse length, EM waves in a plasma environment is a major technological task. In general, the technology issues may be divided into two categories. The first category concerns the region where the plasma comes in contact with the wave launchers. The problems here are dominated by plasma-material interaction, heat deposition by the plasma onto the wave launcher, and erosion of the launcher material. It is necessary to minimize the heat deposition from the plasma, the losses of the rf wave energy in the structure, and to prevent sputtering of the antenna components. A solution involves a combined design using special materials and optimal shaping of the Faraday shield (the electrostatic shields which can be used both for an EM wave polarization adjustment and as a particle shield for the launcher). Recent studies by PPPL and McDonnell Douglas Corp. on the Faraday shield designs will be discussed.1 The second important area where technology development will be necessary is the transmission of high power rf waves through a gas/vacuum interface region. In the past, the vacuum feedthrough has been the bottle neck which prevented high power operation of the PLT antennae. However, with major improvements of the feedthrough design, the power level attainable has risen from 200 kW per antenna to over 1.25 MW per antenna. In the present experiment, the power limit of the vacuum/gas interface has not been reached. As the pulse length of the rf is increased, modification (or cooling) of the rf components will be essential. According to the recent studies of vacuum feedthroughs2 by PPPL and the Grumman Corp., it is expected that with proper cooling the present components will be able to withstand steady-state operation.