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Division Spotlight
Education, Training & Workforce Development
The Education, Training & Workforce Development Division provides communication among the academic, industrial, and governmental communities through the exchange of views and information on matters related to education, training and workforce development in nuclear and radiological science, engineering, and technology. Industry leaders, education and training professionals, and interested students work together through Society-sponsored meetings and publications, to enrich their professional development, to educate the general public, and to advance nuclear and radiological science and engineering.
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
NRC engineers share their expertise at the University of Puerto Rico
Robert Roche-Rivera and Marcos Rolón-Acevedo are licensed professional engineers who work at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. They are also alumni of the University of Puerto Rico–Mayagüez (UPRM) and have been sharing their knowledge and experience with students at their alma mater since last year, serving as adjunct professors in the university’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. During the 2023–2024 school year, they each taught two courses: Fundamentals of Nuclear Science and Engineering, and Nuclear Power Plant Engineering.
T. E. Gebhart, S. J. Meitner, L. R. Baylor
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 75 | Number 8 | November 2019 | Pages 759-766
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2019.1592997
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Mitigation of disruption events in future high energy density tokamaks is essential for machine longevity. The creation of runaway electrons, large electromagnetic forces, and high localized heat loads during a disruption can be devastating to machine components. Shattered pellet injection is currently the most effective method of disruption mitigation. Injection of cryogenically solidified deuterium, neon, or argon (or mixtures thereof) have been shown to efficiently radiate thermal energy of the plasma so that the heat load is distributed on the walls of the machine. Pellets are formed by desublimating gas in the barrel of a pipe gun and fired using a pulse of high-pressure light gas. Current gas gun designs cannot reach sufficient pressure to dislodge pure neon and argon pellets at low temperatures because the material strength is too high. Pellet temperatures must be kept low (to well below the triple-point temperature of the material) to ensure minimal gas flow into the machine due to vapor pressure of the pellet. A gas-driven punch device has been designed and tested to dislodge pure neon or argon pellets. The breakaway strength of a pellet is proportional to the surface area of the pellet in contact with the inner diameter of the barrel. As pellets get larger in diameter, the amount of force needed to dislodge them increases. To better understand the mechanics behind how a punch dislodges a pellet, a solenoid-operated punch was designed so that kinetic energy of the punch, when striking a pellet, can be varied by changing input current to the solenoid. This solenoid punch will be used to determine kinetic energy versus pellet surface area threshold for breakaway. These data will be used to design mechanical punches for use in a high-field tokamak environment. This paper outlines the modeling, design, experimental testing, and results of the punch development activities.