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
Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
Meeting Spotlight
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
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
Apr 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Pacific Fusion predicts “1,000-fold leap” in performance, net facility gain by 2030
Inertial fusion energy (IFE) developer Pacific Fusion, based in Fremont, Calif., announced this morning that it is on target to achieve net facility gain—more fusion energy out than all energy stored in the system—with a demonstration system by 2030, and backs the claim with a technical paper published yesterday on arXiv: “Affordable, manageable, practical, and scalable (AMPS) high-yield and high-gain inertial fusion.”
E.T. Cheng
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 34 | Number 3 | November 1998 | Pages 489-495
Nonelectrical Applications | doi.org/10.13182/FST98-A11963660
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The ST-VNS devices designed for testing and developing fusion power blanket may offer a unique opportunity for near-term, non-electric applications:
-A minimum size, MW level, plasma based 14 MeV neutron source can be very attractive for neutron science applications such as neutron and gamma radiography, and isotope production.-A 70–250 MW level ST-VNS can provide neutrons to drive a sub-critical fission assembly to destroy the actinides discharged from about 10–30 light water reactors and to produce power. A further reduction of long-term radiological hazard from fission power plants can be assured when additional 1,000 – 3,000 MW fusion reactors are developed in the future to transmute the long-lived fission products, Tc and I.-The ST-VNS device also offers a possibility to produce tritium for industrial and defense applications. A 300 MW spin-off device is capable of producing an excess tritium of 2 kg annually, when a conservative overall tritium breeding ratio of 1.2 and 60% availability are assumed.
A minimum size, MW level, plasma based 14 MeV neutron source can be very attractive for neutron science applications such as neutron and gamma radiography, and isotope production.
A 70–250 MW level ST-VNS can provide neutrons to drive a sub-critical fission assembly to destroy the actinides discharged from about 10–30 light water reactors and to produce power. A further reduction of long-term radiological hazard from fission power plants can be assured when additional 1,000 – 3,000 MW fusion reactors are developed in the future to transmute the long-lived fission products, Tc and I.
The ST-VNS device also offers a possibility to produce tritium for industrial and defense applications. A 300 MW spin-off device is capable of producing an excess tritium of 2 kg annually, when a conservative overall tritium breeding ratio of 1.2 and 60% availability are assumed.
