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Division Spotlight
Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
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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Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
ARPA-E announces $40 million to develop transmutation technologies for UNF
The Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) announced $40 million in funding to develop cutting-edge technologies to enable the transmutation of used nuclear fuel into less-radioactive substances. According to ARPA-E, the new initiative addresses one of the agency’s core goals as outlined by Congress: to provide transformative solutions to improve the management, cleanup, and disposal of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel.
S. Meitner, L. R. Baylor, N. Commaux, D. Shiraki, S. Combs, T. Bjorholm, T. Ha, W. McGinnis
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 72 | Number 3 | October 2017 | Pages 318-323
Technical Papers | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1333854
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Disruptions are sudden unplanned terminations of tokamak plasmas that can lead to high thermal loads and runaway electrons (REs). Unmitigated disruptions in ITER are predicted to dissipate up to 350 MJ of thermal energy and generate several MA of multi-MeV runaway electrons. This intense heat and energetic particle beams can cause localized melting of the plasma facing components. Reliable and fast acting disruption mitigation (DM) techniques are therefore a critical requirement for ITER to safeguard the machine from damage.
The proven method for DM centers on injecting a large quantity of impurity particles into the plasma to quickly increase density and radiate the thermal energy to mitigate thermal effects. Additionally, if the particle injection can achieve sufficient density, it can create collisional drag which suppresses the formation of REs. Shattered pellet injection (SPI) has proven to be the most effective method of particle injection thus far attempted and is planned for the DM system on ITER. Recently, a new three-barrel second SPI (SPI-II) system has been developed for use on DIII-D to study injection effects from multiple toroidal locations and pellet timing. The three pellets can be formed and fired individually or simultaneously. The SPI-II has provisions for making and firing pure species pellets with deuterium, neon, or argon and also deuterium layered pellets with a core of neon and mixtures of neon and deuterium.