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
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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
June 2024
Nuclear Technology
May 2024
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Commercial nuclear innovation "new space" age
In early 2006, a start-up company launched a small rocket from a tiny island in the Pacific. It exploded, showering the island with debris. A year later, a second launch attempt sent a rocket to space but failed to make orbit, burning up in the atmosphere. Another year brought a third attempt—and a third failure. The following month, in September 2008, the company used the last of its funds to launch a fourth rocket. It reached orbit, making history as the first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to do so.
W. R. Fundamenski, A. A. Harms
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 29 | Number 3 | May 1996 | Pages 313-349
Critical Review | Fusion Fuel Cycle | doi.org/10.13182/FST96-A30720
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Advanced fuels for nuclear fusion — of which deuterium and 3He mixture is the leading candidate — could reduce tritium inventory, neutron fluence, structural damage, and activation in future reactors as well as allow for direct energy conversion. The feasibility of D-3He fusion is assessed based on recent developments in the areas of fuel resources, fusion and plasma physics, magnetic and inertial reactors, space propulsion, reactor safety, and waste disposal. It appears that D-3He fusion is not well suited to the conventional tokamak design (β ∼ 10%) because of excessive synchrotron loss and closed field topology. High-beta and/or non-Maxwellian plasma configurations are promising but at present lack a sufficient experimental database to predict reactor-relevant behavior. Space propulsion appears to be a most advantageous application of D-3He fusion.
