Nuclear engineering is the engineering discipline concerned with designing and applying systems that utilize the energy released by nuclear processes. The most prominent application of nuclear engineering is the generation of electricity. Worldwide,some 440 nuclear reactors in 32 countries generate 10 percent of the world's energy through nuclear fission. In the future,it is expected that nuclear fusion will add another nuclear means of generating energy. Both reactions make use of the nuclear binding energy released when atomic nucleons are either separated (fission) or brought together (fusion). The energy available is given by the binding energy curve,and the amount generated is much greater than that generated through chemical reactions. Fission of 1 gram of uranium yields as much energy as burning 3 tons of coal or 600 gallons of fuel oil,without adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is a federally funded research and development center in Oak Ridge,Tennessee,United States. Founded in 1943,the laboratory is now sponsored by the United States Department of Energy and administered by UT–Battelle,LLC.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a federally funded research and development center in Livermore,California,United States. Originally established in 1952,the laboratory now is sponsored by the United States Department of Energy and administered privately by Lawrence Livermore National Security,LLC.
The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and energy production,the research and development of nuclear power,the military's nuclear weapons program,nuclear reactor production for the United States Navy,energy-related research,and energy conservation.
This timeline of nuclear fusion is an incomplete chronological summary of significant events in the study and use of nuclear fusion.
ITER is an international nuclear fusion research and engineering megaproject aimed at creating energy through a fusion process similar to that of the Sun. Upon completion of construction of the main reactor and first plasma,planned for late 2025,it will be the world's largest magnetic confinement plasma physics experiment and the largest experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor. It is being built next to the Cadarache facility in southern France. ITER will be the largest of more than 100 fusion reactors built since the 1950s,with ten times the plasma volume of any other tokamak operating today.
The University of Michigan College of Engineering,branded as Michigan Engineering,is the engineering college of the University of Michigan,a public research university in Ann Arbor,Michigan. Michigan Engineering has an enrollment of 7,133 undergraduate and 3,537 graduate students.
Alvin Martin Weinberg was an American nuclear physicist who was the administrator of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) during and after the Manhattan Project. He came to Oak Ridge,Tennessee,in 1945 and remained there until his death in 2006. He was the first to use the term "Faustian bargain" to describe nuclear energy.
The Ford Nuclear Reactor was a facility at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor dedicated to investigating the peaceful uses of nuclear power. It was a part of the Michigan Memorial Phoenix Project,a living memorial created to honor the casualties of World War II. The reactor operated from September 1957 until July 3,2003. During its operation,the FNR was used to study medicine,cellular biology,chemistry,physics,mineralogy,archeology,anthropology,and nuclear science.
Alvin Radkowsky was an American nuclear physicist and chief scientist at U.S. Navy nuclear propulsion division. His work in the 1950s led to major advances in nuclear-ship technology and civilian use of nuclear power.
A neutron research facility is most commonly a big laboratory operating a large-scale neutron source that provides thermal neutrons to a suite of research instruments. The neutron source usually is a research reactor or a spallation source. In some cases,a smaller facility will provide high energy neutrons using existing neutron generator technologies.
General Fusion is a Canadian company based in Richmond,British Columbia,which is developing a fusion power technology based on Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF). The company was founded in 2002 by Dr. Michel Laberge. The company has more than 150 employees.
Alvin William Trivelpiece was an American physicist whose varied career included positions as director of the Office of Energy Research of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE),executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS),and director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). He was also a professor of physics and a corporate executive. Trivelpiece's research focused on plasma physics,controlled thermonuclear research,and particle accelerators. He received several patents for accelerators and microwave devices. He died in Rancho Santa Margarita,California in August 2022 at the age of 91.
Research Laboratory for Nuclear Reactors (RLNR) (Tokyo Institute of Technology) is a Japanese research laboratory for nuclear reactors. It was founded in 1956 for the study of nuclear science and its application.
Sir Steven Charles Cowley is a British theoretical physicist and international authority on nuclear fusion and astrophysical plasmas. He has served as director of the United States Department of Energy (DOE) Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) since 1 July 2018. Previously he served as president of Corpus Christi College,Oxford,since October 2016. and head of the EURATOM / CCFE Fusion Association and chief executive officer of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA).
Edward Creutz was an American physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project at the Metallurgical Laboratory and the Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II. After the war he became a professor of physics at the Carnegie Institute of Technology. He was Vice President of Research at General Atomics from 1955 to 1970. He published over 65 papers on botany,physics,mathematics,metallurgy and science policy,and held 18 patents relating to nuclear energy.
Norman Rostoker was a Canadian plasma physicist known for being a pioneer in developing clean plasma-based fusion energy. He co-founded TAE Technologies in 1998 and held 27 U.S. Patents on plasma-based fusion accelerators.
Warren Fletcher "Pete" Miller Jr. is an American nuclear engineer known for his work in the areas of computational physics,radioactive waste management,transport theory,nuclear reactor design and analysis,and the management of nuclear research and development programs.
Robert W. Conn was president and chief executive officer of The Kavli Foundation from 2009 to 2020,a U.S. based foundation dedicated to the advancement of basic science research and public interest in science. A physicist and engineer,Conn was also the board chair of the Science Philanthropy Alliance,an organization that aims to increase private support for basic science research,and dean emeritus of the Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California,San Diego. In the 1970s and 1980s,Conn participated in some of the earliest studies of fusion energy as a potential source of electricity,and he served on numerous federal panels,committees,and boards advising the government on the subject. In the early 1970s,he co-founded the Fusion Technology Institute at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW),and in the mid-1980s he led the formation of the Institute of Plasma and Fusion Research at the University of California,Los Angeles (UCLA). As a university administrator in the 1990s and early 2000s,Conn served as dean of the school of engineering at UC San Diego as it established several engineering institutes and programs,including the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology,known as Calit2,the Center for Wireless Communications,and the Whitaker Center for Biomedical Engineering. While at UC San Diego he also led the effort to establish an endowment for the school of engineering,which began with major gifts from Irwin and Joan Jacobs. Irwin M. Jacobs is the co-founder and founding CEO of Qualcomm. While Conn was dean,the engineering school was renamed in 1998 the Irwin and Joan Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego. Conn's experience in the private sector includes co-founding in 1986 Plasma &Materials Technologies,Inc. (PMT),and serving as managing director of Enterprise Partners Venture Capital (EPVC) from 2002 to 2008. Over the years he has served on numerous private and public company corporate boards. Conn joined The Kavli Foundation in 2009. He helped establish the Science Philanthropy Alliance in 2012.
Noel Robert David Corngold was an American physicist. He was a professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology.
