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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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Latest News
Colin Judge: Testing structural materials in Idaho’s newest hot cell facility
Idaho National Laboratory’s newest facility—the Sample Preparation Laboratory (SPL)—sits across the road from the Hot Fuel Examination Facility (HFEF), which started operating in 1975. SPL will host the first new hot cells at INL’s Materials and Fuels Complex (MFC) in 50 years, giving INL researchers and partners new flexibility to test the structural properties of irradiated materials fresh from the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) or from a partner’s facility.
Materials meant to withstand extreme conditions in fission or fusion power plants must be tested under similar conditions and pushed past their breaking points so performance and limitations can be understood and improved. Once irradiated, materials samples can be cut down to size in SPL and packaged for testing in other facilities at INL or other national laboratories, commercial labs, or universities. But they can also be subjected to extreme thermal or corrosive conditions and mechanical testing right in SPL, explains Colin Judge, who, as INL’s division director for nuclear materials performance, oversees SPL and other facilities at the MFC.
SPL won’t go “hot” until January 2026, but Judge spoke with NN staff writer Susan Gallier about its capabilities as his team was moving instruments into the new facility.
Seung Hwan Seong, Un Chul Lee, Si Hwan Kim, Jin Wook Jang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 128 | Number 2 | November 1999 | Pages 276-283
Technical Paper | Reactor Operations and Control | doi.org/10.13182/NT99-A3031
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A new analytic model based on hidden-layer neural networks is designed to analyze load-follow operation in a pressurized water reactor (PWR). The new model is mainly made up of four error backpropagation neural networks and procedures to calculate core parameters such as k and xenon distributions in a transient core. The first two neural networks are designed to retrieve the power distribution, the third is for axial offset, and the fourth is for reactivity corresponding to a given core condition. The training data sets are generated by three-dimensional nodal code and the measured data of the first-day load-follow operation. The simulation results of the 5-day load-follow test in a PWR using the new analytic model show that it is an attractive tool for plant simulations in terms of accuracy, computing time, cost, and adaptability to measurements.
