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 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
Mar 2026
Jan 2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
April 2026
Nuclear Technology
February 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
60 Years of U: Perspectives on resources, demand, and the evolving role of nuclear energy
Recent years have seen growing global interest in nuclear energy and rising confidence in the sector. For the first time since the early 2000s, there is renewed optimism about the industry’s future. This change is driven by several major factors: geopolitical developments that highlight the need for secure energy supplies, a stronger focus on resilient energy systems, national commitments to decarbonization, and rising demand for clean and reliable electricity.
L. El-Guebaly, D. Henderson, A. Abdou, P. Wilson, ARIES Team
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 39 | Number 2 | March 2001 | Pages 986-990
Safety and Environment | doi.org/10.13182/FST01-A11963370
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Over the past 10 years, the ARIES team has been devoting a serious effort to reduce the volume of radwaste generated by fusion power plants. Recently, an initiative was launched in the U.S. and Europe to reduce the radwaste volume further by clearing the outer components from regulatory control. Before proceeding further with the development of a new strategy for the U.S. fusion waste management, it is essential to assess the implication of the clearance option on the waste generated by the U.S. advanced power plants. In this paper, we discuss the results of the analysis, the approach adopted by the ARIES team for handling the cleared components, and the U.S. market for cleared metals. Our results state that, because of the compactness of the design, none of the ARIES-AT fusion power core components has a clearance index below one at the end of the 100 year interim storage period and all components should be either recycled or disposed near surface as low-level waste. At present, the U.S. industry has zero tolerance for metals with very low radiation level, meaning the commercial market for cleared metals does not exist.