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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
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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General Kenneth Nichols and the Manhattan Project
Nichols
The Oak Ridger has published the latest in a series of articles about General Kenneth D. Nichols, the Manhattan Project, and the 1954 Atomic Energy Act. The series has been produced by Nichols’ grandniece Barbara Rogers Scollin and Oak Ridge (Tenn.) city historian David Ray Smith. Gen. Nichols (1907–2000) was the district engineer for the Manhattan Engineer District during the Manhattan Project.
As Smith and Scollin explain, Nichols “had supervision of the research and development connected with, and the design, construction, and operation of, all plants required to produce plutonium-239 and uranium-235, including the construction of the towns of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Richland, Washington. The responsibility of his position was massive as he oversaw a workforce of both military and civilian personnel of approximately 125,000; his Oak Ridge office became the center of the wartime atomic energy’s activities.”
Jennifer Lyons, Edward Love, Kim Burns
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 71 | Number 4 | May 2017 | Pages 616-621
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1290944
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
TEACUP (Tritium Effluent Analysis and Core-follow, Up-to-date and Predictive) is a tritium management and supplemental core follow program that allows its users to account for reactor coolant system (RCS) tritium sources, generate discharge release estimates, account for downstream river flows and concentrations, and calculate corresponding uncertainties. The program incorporates water balance methodologies, tritium production estimates from secondary startup neutron sources, soluble boron content, reactor coolant system tritium measurements, and seasonal river flow estimates. TEACUP was designed specifically to facilitate the tracking of Tritium Producing Burnable Absorber Rod (TPBAR) permeation since measuring in-reactor permeation directly is not feasible and prediction methodologies have thus far been insufficient. A number of models, calculations, and correlations were developed in order to quantify all of the leading sources and losses of tritium in the RCS. By comparing all of the known contributors and discharges from the RCS tritium inventory to the measured RCS tritium concentration, the unaccounted for balance (within some band of uncertainty) can be attributed to TPBAR permeation. The tritium release estimates to the river generated from TEACUP are validated by comparing them to the measured tritium releases which match well and give confidence that TEACUP is tracking and accounting for tritium appropriately. An additional check on the methodologies within TEACUP is that the cycle-to-cycle trends for tritium permeation per TPBAR are consistent in behavior and the estimated release per TPBAR across each cycle is the same within their uncertainty.