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Division Spotlight
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
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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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.
Aljaž Čufar, Paola Batistoni, Sean Conroy, Zamir Ghani, Igor Lengar, Sergey Popovichev, Brian Syme, Žiga Štancar, Luka Snoj, JET Contributors
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 74 | Number 4 | November 2018 | Pages 370-386
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2018.1475163
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The fusion power output of fusion plasmas is measured using the neutron yield detectors due to its linear relation to the fusion yield. Absolutely calibrated neutron yield detectors are thus a crucial part of the plasma diagnostics system and the absolute accuracy of their calibration must be ensured.
The transition of the Joint European Torus’s (JET’s) first wall material from carbon (C) wall to ITER-like (Be/W/C) first wall was a significant change in the structure of the machine and recalibration of the main neutron yield detectors was needed to maintain the required measurement uncertainty of less than ±10%. The neutron yield detectors were thus recalibrated through two in situ calibrations to deuterium-deuterium neutrons in 2013 and deuterium-tritium neutrons in 2017 using 252Cf spontaneous fission source and a compact neutron generator, respectively.
We describe the extensive neutronics calculations performed in support of these latest calibration experiments. These analyses were performed using Monte Carlo simulations to better understand the calibration procedure, optimize the experiments, ensure personnel safety, and quantify the effects of the uncharacteristic circumstances during calibration experiments. This paper focuses on assessments of the effects of the uncharacteristic circumstances, e.g., the presence of the remote handling system in the machine due to its use in neutron source delivery, difference in the neutron emission spectrum, and differences in the neutron source shape. Lessons learned, findings, and relevance for calibrations of future large tokamaks are discussed.