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.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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 2025
Jul 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
December 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
November 2025
Latest News
Nuclear power’s new rule book: Managing uncertainty in efficiency, safety, and independence
The U.S. nuclear industry is standing at its most volatile regulatory moment yet—one that will shape the trajectory and the safety of the industry for decades to come. Recent judicial, legislative, and executive actions are rewriting the rules governing the licensing and regulation of nuclear power reactors. Although these changes are intended to promote and accelerate the deployment of new nuclear energy technologies, the collision of multiple legal shifts—occurring simultaneously and intersecting with profound technological uncertainties—is overwhelming the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and threatening to destabilize investor and industry expectations.
S. Besshou, K. Ogata, K. Kondo, T. Mizuuchi, K. Nagasaki, H. Okada, F. Sano, H. Zushi, T. Obiki
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 27 | Number 3 | April 1995 | Pages 219-222
Helical Systems | doi.org/10.13182/FST95-A11947073
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper describes the realization of magnetic detection of the finite β free boundary plasma shin for a toroidal helical plasma. Recent experimental results, the normalized displacement Δb/ap as a function of volume average beta <β>, are discussed. The measured typical plasma boundary shift, Δb/ap, in the standard Heliotron E configuration (Rp=2.20m, ap=0.21m, Ԏ/2ᴨ(0)~0.53, Ԏ/2ᴨ(ap)~2.8) is (5–12)x10–3, when the volume averaged beta is 0.50%. The measured normalized plasma boundary shift is nearly proportional to the diamagnetic volume-averaged beta, for values of beta up to 0.95%. The magnetically determined plasma boundary shift Δb is less than 3 mm. The measured shift is in the range in-between the expected upper limit (Δb/ap = β(0)/2βeq) and the lower limit (Δb/ap = <β>/2βeq), where βeq = (Ԏ/2ᴨ(ap))2(ap/Rp)~0.77 for the standard configuration of Heliotron E.
We find that the measured free boundary plasma shift strongly depends on the initial vacuum magnetic configuration parameters such as the horizontal position of magnetic axis and the rotational transform. When the vacuum magnetic axis is shifted inward toward the major axis, we observed a significant decrease of the normalized plasma shift (Δb/ap) and the plasma induced vertical field, which we interpret as being due to a reduction of Pfirsch-Schlüter current.
