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
Mathematics & Computation
Division members promote the advancement of mathematical and computational methods for solving problems arising in all disciplines encompassed by the Society. They place particular emphasis on numerical techniques for efficient computer applications to aid in the dissemination, integration, and proper use of computer codes, including preparation of computational benchmark and development of standards for computing practices, and to encourage the development on new computer codes and broaden their use.
Meeting Spotlight
ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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
April 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
General Kenneth Nichols and the Manhattan Project
Nichols
The Oak Ridger has published the latest in a series of articles about General Kenneth D. Nichols, the Manhattan Project, and the 1954 Atomic Energy Act. The series has been produced by Nichols’ grandniece Barbara Rogers Scollin and Oak Ridge (Tenn.) city historian David Ray Smith. Gen. Nichols (1907–2000) was the district engineer for the Manhattan Engineer District during the Manhattan Project.
As Smith and Scollin explain, Nichols “had supervision of the research and development connected with, and the design, construction, and operation of, all plants required to produce plutonium-239 and uranium-235, including the construction of the towns of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Richland, Washington. The responsibility of his position was massive as he oversaw a workforce of both military and civilian personnel of approximately 125,000; his Oak Ridge office became the center of the wartime atomic energy’s activities.”
Kieran J. McCarthy, Maria A. Ochando, Francisco Medina, Bernardo Zurro, Carlos Hidalgo, Maria de los Angeles Pedrosa, Ignacio Pastor, Jesús A. Herranz, Alfonso Baciero
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 46 | Number 1 | July 2004 | Pages 129-134
Technical Paper | Stellarators | doi.org/10.13182/FST04-A548
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A fine-grained mobile pyrolytic graphite limiter was biased to generate radial electric fields in the plasma edge region of the TJ-II stellarator to improve confinement operation modes. Indeed, for the range of voltages applied (up to ±300 V), spectroscopic data indicate that limiter biasing does not induce significant external influxes of impurities. Also, after boronization of the vacuum chamber, increases of ~100% in electron density, together with reductions of the order of 40% in Zeff, are observed during limiter biasing. Here, we report on the first study of impurity behavior in the TJ-II during externally induced radial electric fields. For this, different spectroscopic methods were employed, and the results obtained were compared to assess impurity behavior and to evaluate the effectiveness of such biasing on plasma confinement in TJ-II.