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
Isotopes & Radiation
Members are devoted to applying nuclear science and engineering technologies involving isotopes, radiation applications, and associated equipment in scientific research, development, and industrial processes. Their interests lie primarily in education, industrial uses, biology, medicine, and health physics. Division committees include Analytical Applications of Isotopes and Radiation, Biology and Medicine, Radiation Applications, Radiation Sources and Detection, and Thermal Power Sources.
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
January 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Christmas Night
Twas the night before Christmas when all through the houseNo electrons were flowing through even my mouse.
All devices were plugged in by the chimney with careWith the hope that St. Nikola Tesla would share.
N. W. Eidietis
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 77 | Number 7 | November 2021 | Pages 738-744
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2021.1889919
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Disruptions present a great challenge to achieving an economically viable commercial tokamak fusion reactor. Disruption handling, including prevention, mitigation, and resilient design, must be incorporated into future reactor designs at the same priority as core performance and steady-state heat flux removal. Prevention requires avoiding unstable regimes; actively stabilizing instabilities if they do appear; or, if those steps should fail, terminating the plasma-controlled rampdown. Mitigation is a last resort that utilizes massive impurity injection to reduce a damaging concentration of thermal and mechanical loads. Extremely robust disruption prevention will be of paramount importance to ensure high duty factor and capital return on the reactor investment, but the reactor environment poses significant technical challenges exceeding those in ITER. The long-term mission of a commercial reactor motivates investment in passive resilient design to survive disruptions in the absence of active intervention.