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
Young Members Group
The Young Members Group works to encourage and enable all young professional members to be actively involved in the efforts and endeavors of the Society at all levels (Professional Divisions, ANS Governance, Local Sections, etc.) as they transition from the role of a student to the role of a professional. It sponsors non-technical workshops and meetings that provide professional development and networking opportunities for young professionals, collaborates with other Divisions and Groups in developing technical and non-technical content for topical and national meetings, encourages its members to participate in the activities of the Groups and Divisions that are closely related to their professional interests as well as in their local sections, introduces young members to the rules and governance structure of the Society, and nominates young professionals for awards and leadership opportunities available to members.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
May 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
The busyness of the nuclear fuel supply chain
Ken Petersenpresident@ans.org
With all that is happening in the industry these days, the nuclear fuel supply chain is still a hot topic. The Russian assault in Ukraine continues to upend the “where” and “how” of attaining nuclear fuel—and it has also motivated U.S. legislators to act.
Two years into the Russian war with Ukraine, things are different. The Inflation Reduction Act was passed in 2022, authorizing $700 million in funding to support production of high-assay low-enriched uranium in the United States. Meanwhile, the Department of Energy this January issued a $500 million request for proposals to stimulate new HALEU production. The Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2024 includes $2.7 billion in funding for new uranium enrichment production. This funding was diverted from the Civil Nuclear Credits program and will only be released if there is a ban on importing Russian uranium into the United States—which could happen by the time this column is published, as legislation that bans Russian uranium has passed the House as of this writing and is headed for the Senate. Also being considered is legislation that would sanction Russian uranium. Alternatively, the Biden-Harris administration may choose to ban Russian uranium without legislation in order to obtain access to the $2.7 billion in funding.
Kiyoshi Yoshikawa, Yasushi Yamamoto, Hisayuki Toku, Akira Kobayashi, Toru Okazaki
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 15 | Number 4 | July 1989 | Pages 1541-1559
Technical Paper | Energy Storage, Switching, and Conversion | doi.org/10.13182/FST89-A25343
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A 5-yr study of beam direct energy conversion was performed at the Kyoto University Institute of Atomic Energy to clarify the essential features of direct energy recovery from monoenergetic ion beams so that the performance characteristics of energy recovery can be predicted reasonably well by numerical calculations. The study used an improved version of an electrostatically electron-suppressed beam direct converter originally proposed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Secondary electron suppressor grids were added, and a helium ion beam was used with typical parameters of 15.4 keV, 90 mA, and 100 ms. By adopting negatively biased secondary electron suppressor grids, the energy recovery efficiency increased from 72 ± 4 to 87 ± 6% even at relatively high pressures of 10−2 Pa, based on three independent measurements of the incident ion current, including a newly developed “in situ” measurement by a Rogowski coil sensor. The operational region could also be extended to more high-pressure regions. A comparison of experimental results with numerical results by the two-dimensional Kyoto University Advanced DART (KUAD) code, including evaluation of atomic processes, shows excellent agreement. Adoption of the mesh-type electron suppressor instead of the solid suppressor results in further improvements in the beam direct energy recovery.