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Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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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Latest News
Norway’s Halden reactor takes first step toward decommissioning
The government of Norway has granted the transfer of the Halden research reactor from the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) to the state agency Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning (NND). The 25-MWt Halden boiling water reactor operated from 1958 to 2018 and was used in the research of nuclear fuel, reactor internals, plant procedures and monitoring, and human factors.
E.M. Drobyshevski, B.G. Zhukov, R.O. Kurakin, V.A. Sakharov, A.M. Studenkov
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 26 | Number 3 | November 1994 | Pages 649-653
Plasma Fueling and Fuel Cycle | Proceedings of the Eleventh Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy New Orleans, Louisiana June 19-23, 1994 | doi.org/10.13182/FST94-A40230
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Small body launching that uses gas or plasma faces the fundamental problem caused by excess energy loss that is due to the great wall surface/volume ratio of the barrel. For example, the efficiency of the plasma armature (PA) rail-gun acceleration is maximum for 8–10 mm-size bodies and drops as their size decreases.1 That is why in the case of nuclear fusion applications, where 1–2 mm-size pellets at 5–10 km/s velocity are desirable, electromagnetic launchers have not yet demonstrated an advantage over light-gas guns and one is now forced to search for a compromise between the pellet size (increasing it up to #3–4 mm) and its velocity (decreasing it down to ≈3 km/s).. As a whole, the probability of attaining 5–10 km/s velocity for 1–2 mm pellets seems to be rather remote at the present. When designing the 1 mm railgun that exploits the PA, we made use of our concept of dielectric pellet launching at the greatest constant acceleration, which is close to the strength or the electrode skin-layer explosion limits.2 That shortened the barrel length sufficiently. The system become highly compact, with the electrode length ≈10–16 cm, thus permitting the rapid test of new operation modes as well as modifications of the design, including magnetic field augmentation and the use of a compacted PA.3 As a result of these refinements, the difficulties caused by the catastrophic supply of mass ablated from the electrodes were overcome and regimes of 1–2 mm plastic pellets without sabot accelerated to 5 km/s were found. No pre-accelerator is used. The launcher operates in air at atmospheric conditions. The potentials and prospects of the small system created are far from being exhausted and deserve further elaboration.