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Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
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
Argonne’s METL gears up to test more sodium fast reactor components
Argonne National Laboratory has successfully swapped out an aging cold trap in the sodium test loop called METL (Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop), the Department of Energy announced April 23. The upgrade is the first of its kind in the United States in more than 30 years, according to the DOE, and will help test components and operations for the sodium-cooled fast reactors being developed now.
Federico Pesamosca, Federico Felici, Stefano Coda, Cristian Galperti, the TCV Team
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 78 | Number 6 | August 2022 | Pages 427-448
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2022.2043511
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Elongated plasmas lead to improved performance in tokamaks but make the plasma prone to vertical instability, which requires active feedback control, a critical issue for future fusion reactors. Vertical control was optimized for the TCV tokamak by applying modern control theory to electromagnetic models for the plasma-vessel-coils dynamics. Two different optimal combinations of poloidal field coils for vertical control actuation are derived from linear plasma response models and used on different timescales for controlling the plasma vertical position. On fast timescales, the priority is input minimization, while on long timescales position control is designed to be compatible with shape control. A structured H-infinity design extending classical H-infinity to fixed-structure control systems was subsequently applied to obtain an optimized controller using all available coils for position control. Closed-loop performance improvement was demonstrated in dedicated TCV experiments, showing a reduction of input requirement for stabilizing the same plasma, thus reducing the risk of power supply saturation and consequent loss of vertical control. This novel algorithm is adaptable to different plasma equilibria as it is designed for model-based automated coil selection and controller tuning, thus avoiding extensive experimental gain scans when performing plasma discharges in TCV. The presented technique is general and can be applied to any present tokamak with independent coils or for the design of future tokamak magnetic control systems.