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Nuclear Criticality Safety
NCSD provides communication among nuclear criticality safety professionals through the development of standards, the evolution of training methods and materials, the presentation of technical data and procedures, and the creation of specialty publications. In these ways, the division furthers the exchange of technical information on nuclear criticality safety with the ultimate goal of promoting the safe handling of fissionable materials outside reactors.
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International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
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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
Argonne’s METL gears up to test more sodium fast reactor components
Argonne National Laboratory has successfully swapped out an aging cold trap in the sodium test loop called METL (Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop), the Department of Energy announced April 23. The upgrade is the first of its kind in the United States in more than 30 years, according to the DOE, and will help test components and operations for the sodium-cooled fast reactors being developed now.
T. A. Heltemes, G. A. Moses
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 52 | Number 4 | November 2007 | Pages 927-931
Technical Paper | Inertial Fusion Technology: Drivers and Advanced Designs | doi.org/10.13182/FST07-A1612
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The introduction of magnetic cusp fields into the High Average Power Laser (HAPL) reactor design is to prevent target ions from interacting with the armor layer. Diverting the ions and preventing their impact on the chamber armor eases thermal design constraints considerably. The BUCKY code was used to simulate thermal loads for the candidate armor materials tungsten and silicon carbide.Parametric analysis was done to ascertain the peak temperature rise in the armor due to X-rays from the HAPL target thermonuclear ignition. Temperature values as a function of chamber armor radius were obtained using initial conditions of T0 = 600 °C and xenon buffer gas pressures of 66.7, 666.7 and 6666.1 mPa (0.5, 5 and 50 mTorr). The armor radius was decreased until thermal thresholds were met (2400 °C and 1000 °C for tungsten and silicon carbide, respectively) to determine the minimum allowable radius of the HAPL chamber.A second set of parametric simulations were performed at xenon gas initial pressures of 666.7 and 6666.1 mPa (5 and 50 mTorr) and temperature of 600°C to a time of 5 ms to observe the effect of re-radiation from the buffer gas on the surface temperature of tungsten and silicon carbide.