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Division Spotlight
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.
Meeting Spotlight
Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
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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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Taking shape: Fusion energy ecosystems built with public-private partnerships
It’s possible to describe fusion in simple terms: heat and squeeze small atoms to get abundant clean energy. But there’s nothing simple about getting fusion ready for the grid.
Private developers, national lab and university researchers, suppliers, and end users working toward that goal are developing a range of complex technologies to reach fusion temperatures and pressures, confounded by science and technology gaps linked to plasma behavior; materials, diagnostics, and electronics for extreme environments; fuel cycle sustainability; and economics.
Per Seltborg, Jan Wallenius
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 154 | Number 2 | October 2006 | Pages 202-214
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE06-A2626
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The distribution of actinides in the core of an accelerator-driven system loaded with plutonium, americium, and curium has been studied in order to optimize the proton source efficiency *. The optimization of * was performed by keeping some important characteristics of the system, e.g., the radial power profile and the reactivity of the core, constant. One of the basic assumptions of the study, that the magnitude of * is sensitive primarily to the composition of actinides in the inner part of the core, whereas only marginally to that in the outer part, has been confirmed. It has been shown that the odd-N nuclides (those nuclides with an even number of neutrons) in general and 241Am and 244Cm in particular have favorable properties with respect to improving * if they are placed in the innermost part of the core. The underlying reason for this phenomenon is that the energy spectrum of the source neutrons in the inner part of the core is harder than that of the average fission neutrons. Moreover, it has been shown that loading the inner part of the core with only curium increases * by ~7%. Plutonium, on the other hand, in particular high-quality plutonium consisting mainly of 239Pu and 241Pu, was found to be a comparatively source inefficient element and is preferably located in the outer part of the core. The differences in * are due to combined effects from relative changes in the average fission and capture cross sections and in the average fission neutron yield.