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
Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
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
June 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
May 2025
Latest News
Argonne’s METL gears up to test more sodium fast reactor components
Argonne National Laboratory has successfully swapped out an aging cold trap in the sodium test loop called METL (Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop), the Department of Energy announced April 23. The upgrade is the first of its kind in the United States in more than 30 years, according to the DOE, and will help test components and operations for the sodium-cooled fast reactors being developed now.
Robin L. Hibbard, Matthew J. Bono, Peter A. Amendt, Don W. Bennett, Carlos Castro
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 45 | Number 2 | March 2004 | Pages 117-123
Technical Paper | Target Fabrication | doi.org/10.13182/FST04-A437
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Double shell targets have been built by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) for inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments on the Omega laser at the University of Rochester and as a prelude to similar experiments on NIF. Of particular interest to ICF studies are high-precision double shell implosion targets for demonstrating thermonuclear ignition without the need for cryogenic preparation. Because the ignition tolerance to interface instabilities is rather low, the manufacturing requirements for smooth surface finishes and shell concentricity are particularly strict. This paper describes a deterministic approach to manufacturing and controlling error sources in each component. Included is the design philosophy of why certain manufacturing techniques were chosen to best reduce the errors within the target. The manufacturing plan developed for this effort created a deterministic process that, once proven, is repeatable. By taking this rigorous approach to controlling all error sources during the manufacture of each component and during assembly, we have achieved the overall 5 m dimensional requirement with sub-micron surface flaws. Strengths and weaknesses of the manufacturing process will be discussed.