ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Division Spotlight
Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
Meeting Spotlight
2027 ANS Winter Conference and Expo
October 31–November 4, 2027
Washington, DC|The Westin Washington, DC Downtown
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Nov 2024
Jul 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
December 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
November 2024
Latest News
Argonne investigates industrial SMR applications for postwar Ukraine
Argonne National Laboratory will play a leading role in planning and rebuilding a nuclear-generated clean energy infrastructure for postwar Ukraine as part of the lab’s focus on developing small modular reactor applications to help countries meet energy security goals. The latest plans, described in a November 19 article, were announced on November 16 at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan.
H. Huang, A. Nikroo, R. B. Stephens, S. A. Eddinger, D. R. Wall, K. A. Moreno, H. W. Xu
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 55 | Number 4 | May 2009 | Pages 356-366
Technical Paper | Eighteenth Target Fabrication Specialists' Meeting | doi.org/10.13182/FST55-356
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
National Ignition Facility (NIF) specifications require nondestructive, independent profiling of copper, argon, and oxygen in a delivered beryllium capsule. We use a combination of two methods to accomplish this goal: (a) model-enhanced energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) of witness shell fragments for destructive profiling of all three elements in a select sample within a batch and (b) differential radiography (DR) to profile copper and argon on multiple shells to nondestructively prove the sample-to-sample consistency within a batch. This combination fully qualifies the delivered shells. For EDS, we developed a physics model and fabricated standards to quantify low concentrations of relatively light elements in a very low-Z matrix. For model validation, we produced sputtered beryllium capsules containing a single dopant in each shell and used contact radiography (CR) to characterize the dopant profiles to 5 to 10% accuracy. The copper calibration was also checked against bulk Cu-Be standards with known composition, and the argon and oxygen calibrations were also checked against the X-ray absorption edge spectroscopy (Edge method) and the weight gain methods. Together, the EDS method gives ±0.1, ±0.05, and ±0.2 at.% accuracy for copper, argon, and oxygen, respectively, in NIF specification capsules. For DR, we conduct two CR measurements with the X-ray tube running at 9 and 30 kVp, respectively. The differential response between copper and argon enables elemental separation. The dopant profiles can be measured to ±0.1 at.% for NIF specification capsules. The oxygen profile in DR must be inferred from the EDS measurement. In the production work flow, we use EDS to obtain the oxygen profile and use it as input to the DR measurement. We then check that the copper and argon profiles obtained from DR and those from EDS are consistent. The average argon and copper contents from either method can also be checked against the results from the Edge method. These two levels of cross-checks offer critical assurances to the data integrity in production metrology.