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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
Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2025)
February 3–6, 2025
Amelia Island, FL|Omni Amelia Island Resort
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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Reboot: Nuclear needs a success . . . anywhere
The media have gleefully resurrected the language of a past nuclear renaissance. Beyond the hype and PR, many people in the nuclear community are taking a more measured view of conditions that could lead to new construction: data center demand, the proliferation of new reactor designs and start-ups, and the sudden ascendance of nuclear energy as the power source everyone wants—or wants to talk about.
Once built, large nuclear reactors can provide clean power for at least 80 years—outlasting 10 to 20 presidential administrations. Smaller reactors can provide heat and power outputs tailored to an end user’s needs. With all the new attention, are we any closer to getting past persistent supply chain and workforce issues and building these new plants? And what will the election of Donald Trump to a second term as president mean for nuclear?
As usual, there are more questions than answers, and most come down to money. Several developers are engaging with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or have already applied for a license, certification, or permit. But designs without paying customers won’t get built. So where are the customers, and what will it take for them to commit?
R. C. Lloyd, E. D. Clayton, L. E. Hansen, S. R. Bierman
Nuclear Technology | Volume 18 | Number 3 | June 1973 | Pages 225-230
Technical Paper | Chemical Processing | doi.org/10.13182/NT73-A31297
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A series of criticality experiments was performed on plutonium nitrate solutions in slab geometry. The solutions contained plutonium at concentrations ranging between 58 and 412 g Pu/liter for material with three different isotopic contents: 4.6, 18.4, and 23.2 wt% 240Pu. Acid molarities varied from 1.6 to 5.0. The experiments were performed with a variable thickness slab-type vessel of 42-in. height and width, whose thickness could be adjusted throughout a range of 3 to 9 in. The experimental vessel was used with and without a water reflector and also with a 1-in.-thick Plexiglas reflector. The critical experiment data from the finite slabs were corrected to yield values of critical thicknesses for one-dimensional infinite slabs, i.e., slabs of finite thickness but of infinite height and width. Analytical corrections, based on experimental data, were subsequently used to correct the critical infinite slab thicknesses for materials extraneous to the plutonium solutions, such as the effect of the stainless-steel vessel walls and room return neutrons. The analysis provided values for clean one-dimensional assemblies that were then used as an integral check of calculational methods using cross sections from the ENDF/B-II data file. The computed values of keff for these “clean assemblies” ranged between 0.988 and 1.040; the values increased somewhat with increasing concentration.