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Division Spotlight
Nuclear Installations Safety
Devoted specifically to the safety of nuclear installations and the health and safety of the public, this division seeks a better understanding of the role of safety in the design, construction and operation of nuclear installation facilities. The division also promotes engineering and scientific technology advancement associated with the safety of such facilities.
Meeting Spotlight
ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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
X-energy, Dow apply to build an advanced reactor project in Texas
Dow and X-energy announced today that they have submitted a construction permit application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a proposed advanced nuclear project in Seadrift, Texas. The project could begin construction later this decade, but only if Dow confirms “the ability to deliver the project while achieving its financial return targets.”
J. L. Weaver et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 64 | Number 2 | August 2013 | Pages 194-200
IFE | Proceedings of the Twentieth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (TOFE-2012) (Part 1), Nashville, Tennessee, August 27-31, 2012 | doi.org/10.13182/FST13-A18076
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Recent designs for laser driven, direct drive inertial confinement fusion (ICF) indicate that substantial gains (G>100) might be achieved with lower total laser energy (E~500 kJ) than previously considered possible. A leading contender is the shock ignition approach which compresses low aspect ratio pellets with high intensity laser pulses (1015 W/cm2) before achieving ignition with a final higher intensity spike (1016 W/cm2). Excimer laser systems based on a krypton-fluoride (KrF) medium are particularly well suited to these new ideas as they operate in the ultraviolet (248 nm), provide highly uniform illumination, possess large bandwidth (1-3 THz), and can easily exploit beam zooming to improve laser-target coupling for the final spike pulse. This paper will examine target physics advantages of KrF lasers in relation to the new implosion designs and the balancing of hydrodynamic instability and laser-plasma instabilities. Supporting experimental and theoretical studies of are being conducted by the Nike laser group at the U. S. Naval Research Laboratory. Recent experimental work has also shown that the high ablation pressures and smooth profiles obtained with the Nike laser can be used to accelerate planar targets to velocities consistent with the requirements of impact ignition.