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Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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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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General Kenneth Nichols and the Manhattan Project
Nichols
The Oak Ridger has published the latest in a series of articles about General Kenneth D. Nichols, the Manhattan Project, and the 1954 Atomic Energy Act. The series has been produced by Nichols’ grandniece Barbara Rogers Scollin and Oak Ridge (Tenn.) city historian David Ray Smith. Gen. Nichols (1907–2000) was the district engineer for the Manhattan Engineer District during the Manhattan Project.
As Smith and Scollin explain, Nichols “had supervision of the research and development connected with, and the design, construction, and operation of, all plants required to produce plutonium-239 and uranium-235, including the construction of the towns of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Richland, Washington. The responsibility of his position was massive as he oversaw a workforce of both military and civilian personnel of approximately 125,000; his Oak Ridge office became the center of the wartime atomic energy’s activities.”
R. Keppens, J. P. Goedbloed, J. W. S. Blokland
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 57 | Number 2 | February 2010 | Pages 137-147
Equilibrium and Instabilities | Proceedings of the Ninth Carolus Magnus Summer School on Plasma and Fusion Energy Physics | doi.org/10.13182/FST10-A9404
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The magnetohydrodynamic model for fusion plasma dynamics governs the large-scale equilibrium properties, and sets the most stringent constraints on the parameter space accessible without violent disruptions. In conjunction with linear stability analysis in the complex tokamak geometry, the MHD paradigm is also routinely being used to diagnose recurring wave modes and identify potential MHD mode triggers of consequent non-MHD phenomena. On the other hand, it is currently computationally feasible to perform fully nonlinear simulations in tokamak geometry, and determine nonlinear, long-term (i.e. on resistive time scales) evolutions for individual MHD dominated plasma scenarios. It can be expected that this success continues its evolution towards a fully integrated computational analysis of the experimental campaigns, certainly in view of the desired steady-state self-burning plasmas.
