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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
2024 ANS Winter Conference and Expo
November 17–21, 2024
Orlando, FL|Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld
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
November 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
A proactive approach to reactor vessel aging management
Unit 2 at the Prairie Island nuclear power plant near Red Wing, Minn., underwent an outage in fall 2023, which included extensive work on the reactor vessel using a novel approach to replace baffle-former bolts and lower radial clevis insert bolts. The work relied on extensive analysis beforehand to determine which bolts to replace such that only the new bolts were structurally credited for performance of their safety function. This proactive approach eliminated the need for costly contingencies associated with inspections.
Muhammad Abdullah, Ahmad Ali, Riaz Khan, Osama Abdur Rehman, Zia-ur- Rehman, Shahab Ud-Din Khan, Sehrish Shakir, Shahzaib Zahid, Muhammad Ismail, Rafaqat Ali, Sarfraz Ahmad, Shahid Hussain
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 80 | Number 6 | August 2024 | Pages 731-740
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2023.2241004
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The MT-II is a small spherical tokamak that is currently under construction at the Pakistan Tokamak Plasma Research Institute. Wall conditioning of the MT-II vacuum vessel (VV) is an essential step to achieve a good quality vacuum for plasma experiments. This study presents an overview of the wall-conditioning techniques implemented on the MT-II VV, including baking and glow discharge cleaning (GDC). Prior to wall conditioning, the system is checked via a helium leak test machine and residual gas analyzer (RGA) to identify and remove leaks. The VV walls are baked at ~180 °C to get rapid desorption of water vapors and other impurities. After the baking process, the partial pressure of most of the carbon- and oxygen-containing impurities is reduced. In particular, the partial pressure of water vapors is reduced by 93%. Consequently, the total leak and outgassing rate is significantly reduced. To further improve the vacuum condition in the vessel, hydrogen GDC is carried out. The fill hydrogen pressure and anode voltage are optimized to get a stable glow discharge. The RGA scan shows that GDC reduces the partial pressure of H2O, O2, and CO2 by 57%, 63%, and 51%, respectively. The results signify that baking and GDC are effective techniques for wall conditioning of the MT-II VV.