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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
2024 ANS Winter Conference and Expo
November 17–21, 2024
Orlando, FL|Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld
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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Latest News
Nuclear new build procurement considerations
It may seem counterintuitive, but the best time to enhance the ability to support operations and maintenance for a new plant is before construction starts. This is one of many lessons learned by the currently operating nuclear fleet. As construction and startup of many nuclear facilities was completed, it quickly became evident that the ability to efficiently support operations and maintenance was limited. Most of the information necessary to establish and manage procurement of spare and replacement items, maintenance, and configuration of the facilities was unavailable and had to be gathered on a case-by-case, “on-demand” basis. Absence of necessary information and the associated challenges resulted in the need for staff augmentation and multiyear-long projects to develop equipment bills of material and maintenance programs and to perform technical evaluations for the huge quantities of spare and replacement items being requested.
Amy Hall, Daniel A. Gum, Richard Ferrieri, John Brockman, James E. Bevins
Nuclear Technology | Volume 206 | Number 7 | July 2020 | Pages 962-976
Technical Paper – Special section on the 2019 ANS Student Conference | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2020.1740561
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The General Electric (GE®) PETtrace 860 cyclotron at the Missouri University Research Reactor (MURR) facility is used extensively for medical and research radioisotope production. However, no model exists of its performance, and the proton beam’s energy and spatial distribution are unmeasured. Here, an MCNP6 model was developed to improve upon the performance of the cyclotron target systems that are routinely utilized for research and medical radioisotope production. Since the cyclotron beam energy and profile have a significant impact on the efficiency and character of radioisotope production, the MURR cyclotron proton beam energy was measured using high-purity copper stacked foil activation to be 14.6 ± 0.2 MeV, a significant reduction from the stated 16.4 MeV. Phosphor plate imaging was also used to radiographically image the distribution of radioisotope production within the copper foils and characterize the beam spatial and intensity profile. Total target activity was quantified by trapping the 11C on a solid adsorbent and measuring the amount in an ion chamber. Effective target densities were calculated for irradiations conducted with beam currents between 5 and 40 μA. The measured beam and target characteristics were used to develop an MCNP6 model of 11C production. Through use of the model, it was determined that the targets were, at most, 41% efficient as a thick target design resulting in up to 11.80-MeV average protons impinging on the target walls leading to potential contamination from hot ion recoils.