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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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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.
Suresh Garg, Feroz Ahmed, L. S. Kothari
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 63 | Number 4 | August 1977 | Pages 500-504
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE77-A27064
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
We have extended our earlier calculations of steady-state space- and angle-dependent thermalneutron spectra in small beryllium assemblies to assemblies of much greater transverse dimensions and have studied neutron diffusion up to much greater distances from the source plane, with a view toward looking for a discrete mode of decay. We find that in the forward direction, neutron distribution fails to attain equilibrium inside 140-cm-thick assemblies with transverse dimensions of 150 × 150 cm2, whereas in the backward direction, equilibrium is reached even inside an assembly of transverse dimensions of 80 × 80 cm2. We show that in the forward direction, equilibrium is delayed by the presence of a penetrating beam of uncollided sub-Bragg neutrons of the source. Thus, an experimentalist can hardly hope to observe equilibrium in the forward direction. The calculated value of diffusion length is in excellent agreement with the observed as well as the theoretical values obtained by earlier workers.