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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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ANS joins others in seeking to discuss SNF/HLW impasse
The American Nuclear Society joined seven other organizations to send a letter to Energy Secretary Christopher Wright on July 8, asking to meet with him to discuss “the restoration of a highly functioning program to meet DOE’s legal responsibility to manage and dispose of the nation’s commercial and legacy defense spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level radioactive waste (HLW).”
U. Shumlak, E. T. Meier, B. J. Levitt
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 80 | Number 1 | January 2024 | Pages 1-16
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2023.2198049
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Fusion gain and triple product are derived for the sheared-flow-stabilized (SFS) Z pinch by including the input power associated with driving the plasma flow and the additional advective loss of thermal energy. Plasma impurities contribute to radiative power losses and to thermal power losses by increasing the electron population. The presence of impurities increases the required plasma parameters, characterized by the triple product, to achieve fusion gain. The analysis is applied to deuterium-tritium (D-T) fusion, though the methodology can be extended to other reactions. Since D-T fusion produces an alpha particle, the possibility exists of magnetically confining the alpha with sufficiently high magnetic fields, which are self-generated by the plasma pinch current. Confined alpha particles can heat the D-T fusion fuel, reduce the needed input power, and thereby amplify the fusion gain. However, ignition () does not occur since the axial plasma flow must be externally driven. The impacts of alpha heating and impurity losses are considered on the fusion performance of the SFS Z pinch. Requirements, assumptions, and limitations are described that would justify a determination of “D-T equivalent conditions” in a D-D plasma. A minimum set of experimental measurements of plasma parameters is specified that can be compared to a plasma parameter map to facilitate a “” claim, where is defined by instantaneous values of fusion power and input power. Corroborating measurements are also discussed that would further support extrapolation of plasma and fusion performance to D-T operation.