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Division Spotlight
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
Meeting Spotlight
ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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
March 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
February 2025
Latest News
WEST claims latest plasma confinement record
The French magnetic confinement fusion tokamak known as WEST maintained a plasma in February for more than 22 minutes—1,337 seconds, to be precise—and “smashed” the previous record plasma duration for a tokamak with a 25 percent improvement, according to the CEA, which operates the machine. The previous 1,006-second record was set by China’s EAST just a few weeks prior. Records are made to be broken, but this rapid progress illustrates a collective, global increase in plasma confinement expertise, aided by tungsten in key components.
W. L. Dutré, A. F. Debosscher
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 62 | Number 3 | March 1977 | Pages 355-363
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE77-A26977
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper presents an exact and complete statistical analysis of the neutron density fluctuations resulting from Gaussian white reactivity noise in a point reactor model with proportional power feedback, but without delayed neutrons. The analysis includes the multiplicative effect of neutron density and reactivity variations. An exact solution of the time-independent Fokker-Planck equation is found, resulting in a gamma density function for the stationary first-order probability density of the power fluctuations. The time-dependent Fokker-Planck equation is solved for the Laplace transformed function, which can be written in terms of confluent hypergeometric functions. The subsequent inversion yields the transition probability density function. The most common first- and second-order statistical characteristics, such as moments, autocovariance function, and power spectral density, are calculated and compared to the results of a linearized analysis.