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Division Spotlight
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.
Meeting Spotlight
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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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.
Tristan T. Utschig, Michael L. Corradini
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 44 | Number 4 | December 2003 | Pages 791-802
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST03-A416
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Pulsed power experiments for basic physics investigations as well as inertial confinement fusion designs have developed Z-pinch technologies that produce terawatt level power using multiwire arrays. The energy released from such pulsed power tests results in fragmentation and vaporization of structures at the central wire array as well as shock wave propagation to the chamber boundaries. Practical design and safety considerations require that tracking of this shock front and the associated gas-debris field be done for a variety of experimental configurations to predict the arrival time of hazardous or radioactive debris at fast closure valve locations. A novel computational model has been developed to handle gas expansion into vacuum using a computer model (TEXAS) operating on a Eulerian mesh. Upon expansion of a high-pressure gas into a region of hard vacuum where free molecular transport dominates, the transport model switches between a traditional Eulerian continuum mechanics model and a free molecular transport model across the interface between the two regions. The interface location then propagates along the mesh as the gas expands. This new quasi-one-dimensional model (TEXAS-NCV) has been implemented and tested for two benchmark cases. Such a model can be useful in the design of inertial fusion systems.