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
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
Jan 2026
Jul 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
January 2026
Nuclear Technology
December 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
November 2025
Latest News
AI at work: Southern Nuclear’s adoption of Copilot agents drives fleet forward
Southern Nuclear is leading the charge in artificial intelligence integration, with employee-developed applications driving efficiencies in maintenance, operations, safety, and performance.
The tools span all roles within the company, with thousands of documented uses throughout the fleet, including improved maintenance efficiency, risk awareness in maintenance activities, and better-informed decision-making. The data-intensive process of preparing for and executing maintenance operations is streamlined by leveraging AI to put the right information at the fingertips for maintenance leaders, planners, schedulers, engineers, and technicians.
T. Norimatsu, D. Harding, R. Stephens, A. Nikroo, R. Petzoldt, H. Yoshida, K. Nagai, Y. Izawa
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 49 | Number 3 | April 2006 | Pages 483-499
Technical Paper | Fast Ignition | doi.org/10.13182/FST06-A1162
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The current status of the fabrication, injection, and tracking of fast ignition targets is summarized including on cryogenic technologies for direct-drive, laser fusion targets with and without a reentrant guide cone for additional heating lasers. The fabrication of low-density foam and the drilling of fragile foam shells are current issues in the fabrication of fast ignition targets with reentrant cones. Fuel loading to the targets is a challenging issue in the mass-production process of the targets for a fusion power plant. Two fuel-loading methods are proposed for the fast ignition target with the cone. Preliminary experiments of injection and tracking of real-size targets have started showing promising results.