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Division Spotlight
Nuclear Criticality Safety
NCSD provides communication among nuclear criticality safety professionals through the development of standards, the evolution of training methods and materials, the presentation of technical data and procedures, and the creation of specialty publications. In these ways, the division furthers the exchange of technical information on nuclear criticality safety with the ultimate goal of promoting the safe handling of fissionable materials outside reactors.
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 Science and Engineering
August 2024
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.
Jianqing Cai, Huasheng Xie, Yang Li, Michel Tuszewski, Hongbin Zhou, Peipei Chen
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 78 | Number 2 | February 2022 | Pages 149-163
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2021.1964309
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Most tokamak devices including ITER exploit the deuterium-tritium reaction due to its high reactivity, but the wall loading caused by the associated 14-MeV neutrons will limit the further development of fusion performance at high beta. To explore the p-11B fusion cycle, a tokamak system code is extended to incorporate the relativistic bremsstrahlung since the temperature of electrons approaches the electron rest energy. By choosing an optimum p-11B mix and ion temperature, some representative sets of parameters of the p-11B tokamak reactor, whose fusion gain exceeds 1, have been found under the thermal wall loading limit and beta limit when synchrotron radiation loss is neglected. However, the fusion gain greatly decreases when the effect of synchrotron radiation loss is considered. Helium ash also plays an important role in the fusion performance, and we have found that the helium confinement time must be below the energy confinement time to keep the helium concentration ratio in an acceptable range.