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
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Winter Conference and Expo
November 17–21, 2024
Orlando, FL|Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld
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
October 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
August 2024
Latest News
New laws offer nuclear industry incentives for existing power plant uprates
This year, the U.S. nuclear industry received a much-needed economic boost that could help preserve operating nuclear power plants and incentivize upgrades that extend their lifespan and power output.
Signed into law in 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act offers production tax credits (PTCs) for existing nuclear power plants and either PTCs or investment tax credits (ITCs) for new carbon-free generation. These credits could make power uprates—increasing the maximum power level at which a commercial plant may operate—a much more appealing option for utilities.
F. Winterberg
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 56 | Number 1 | January 1975 | Pages 83-84
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE75-A26622
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The consequences of igniting a small fissionable pellet by laser-beam or relativistic electron-beam induced high density implosion-compression on future reactor technology are discussed. It is shown that with this method a highly efficient reactor system becomes possible by direct magnetohydrodynamic conversion of the expanding fireball into a magnetic cavity. The method not only will lead to an “absolutely” safe fast breeder reactor but by using hybrid pellets consisting of a combination of both fissionable and fusionable materials in addition will also lead to a combined fission-fusion energy producing system. In such a fission-fusion hybrid system, whereby the fission process produces a large amount of heat and the fusion process produces a large number of neutrons, the bootstrap coupling between the fission and fusion processes greatly increases the rate of the ensuing chain reaction and hence energy output enhancing substantially the energy yield of the micro-explosions.