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
Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
Meeting Spotlight
Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2025)
February 3–6, 2025
Amelia Island, FL|Omni Amelia Island Resort
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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Nuclear Science and Engineering
February 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
A more open future for nuclear research
A growing number of institutional, national, and funder mandates are requiring researchers to make their published work immediately publicly accessible, through either open repositories or open access (OA) publications. In addition, both private and public funders are developing policies, such as those from the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the European Commission, that ask researchers to make publicly available at the time of publication as much of their underlying data and other materials as possible. These, combined with movement in the scientific community toward embracing open science principles (seen, for example, in the dramatic rise of preprint servers like arXiv), demonstrate a need for a different kind of publishing outlet.
D. T. Goodin, N. B. Alexander, G. E. Besenbruch, L. C. Brown, A. Nobile, R. W. Petzoldt, W. S. Rickman, D. Schroen, B. Vermillion
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 44 | Number 2 | September 2003 | Pages 279-283
Technical Paper | Fusion Energy - Advanced Designs | doi.org/10.13182/FST03-A347
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The "Target Fabrication Facility" (TFF) of an IFE power plant must supply about 500,000 targets per day. The targets are injected into the target chamber at a rate of 5-10 Hz and tracked precisely so the driver beams can be directed to the target. The feasibility of developing successful fabrication and injection methodologies at the low cost required for energy production (about $0.25/target, about 104 less than current costs) is a critical issue for inertial fusion. To help identify major cost factors and technology development needs, we have utilized a classic chemical engineering approach to the TFF. The analyses assume an "nth-of-a-kind" TFF and utilize standard industrial engineering cost factors. The results indicate that the direct drive target can be produced for about $0.16 each. Iterations are still underway for the indirect drive target. These cost analyses assume that the process development is accomplished to allow scaling of current laboratory methods to larger sizes, while still meeting target specifications. A development program is underway at various laboratories to support this scale-up.