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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.
J. F. Whalen, A. B. Smith
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 67 | Number 1 | July 1978 | Pages 129-130
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE78-A27243
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The energy-averaged neutron total cross sections of thorium were measured from ∼0.1 to 5.0 MeV with statistical accuracies of ≤2%. The experimental results are larger than the values given in ENDF/B-IV by as much as 10 to 15% in energy regions of prime relevance to thorium-233U fast fission reactor concepts. These large differences imply major changes in evaluated neutron cross sections essential for thorium cycle neutronic assessments. All measured data reported have been transmitted to the National Nuclear Data Center, Brookhaven National Laboratory.