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Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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Latest News
Norway’s Halden reactor takes first step toward decommissioning
The government of Norway has granted the transfer of the Halden research reactor from the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) to the state agency Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning (NND). The 25-MWt Halden boiling water reactor operated from 1958 to 2018 and was used in the research of nuclear fuel, reactor internals, plant procedures and monitoring, and human factors.
Howard Wilson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 57 | Number 2 | February 2010 | Pages 174-182
Equilibrium and Instabilities | Proceedings of the Ninth Carolus Magnus Summer School on Plasma and Fusion Energy Physics | doi.org/10.13182/FST10-A9408
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
As one increases the heating power in a tokamak beyond a threshold, the confinement undergoes a bifurcation, with a dramatic increase in the confinement time by a factor ~2. This improved confinement regime, or H-mode, is primarily due to the formation of an insulating region at the plasma edge, where steep pressure gradients can form. A feature of H-mode operation is a series of explosive plasma events, called Edge Localised Modes, or ELMs. They repeatedly expel large amounts of energy and particles from the plasma, with serious consequences for the heat loads that plasma facing components must be designed to handle. The present understanding of these ELMs in terms of ideal magneto-hydrodynamic instabilities will be reviewed in this paper.