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Division Spotlight
Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy
The mission of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy Division (NNPD) is to promote the peaceful use of nuclear technology while simultaneously preventing the diversion and misuse of nuclear material and technology through appropriate safeguards and security, and promotion of nuclear nonproliferation policies. To achieve this mission, the objectives of the NNPD are to: Promote policy that discourages the proliferation of nuclear technology and material to inappropriate entities. Provide information to ANS members, the technical community at large, opinion leaders, and decision makers to improve their understanding of nuclear nonproliferation issues. Become a recognized technical resource on nuclear nonproliferation, safeguards, and security issues. Serve as the integration and coordination body for nuclear nonproliferation activities for the ANS. Work cooperatively with other ANS divisions to achieve these objective nonproliferation policies.
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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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.
Leif Holmlid
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 75 | Number 3 | April 2019 | Pages 208-217
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2018.1546090
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Fusion power generators employing muon-catalyzed nuclear fusion can be developed using a new type of laser-driven muon generator. Results using this generator have been published, and those data are now used to derive the possible fusion power using this generator. Muon-catalyzed fusion has been studied for 60 years, and the results found in such studies are used here to determine the possible power output. Since the muon source gives complex mixtures of mesons and leptons, which have very different interactions with the measuring equipment, the number of negative muons formed is not easily found exactly, but reasonable values based on numerous published experiments with different methods are used to predict the energy output. With deuterium-tritium as fuel, a fusion power generator employing the novel muon generator could give more than 1 MW thermal power. The thermal power using pure deuterium as fuel may be up to 220 kW initially: It will increase with time up to over 1 MW due to the production of tritium in one reaction branch. The power required for running a modern laser and the muon generator is estimated to be of the order of 100 W, thus giving a total energy gain of more than 10 000. The harmful radiation from such fusion power generators is mainly in the form of neutrons from the fusion reactions. Thus, thick radiation shields are necessary as for almost all other fusion concepts. This means that medium-scale thermal fusion power generators of the muon-catalyzed fusion type may become available within a relatively short time.