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
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
Proving DRACO will deliver
The United States is now closer than it has been in over five decades to launching the first nuclear thermal rocket into space, thanks to DRACO—the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Orbit.
Mamoru Matsuoka, Masanori Araki, Makoto Mizuno†
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 26 | Number 4 | December 1994 | Pages 1296-1303
Technical Paper | Energy Storage, Switching, and Conversion | doi.org/10.13182/FST94-A30314
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The concept of a direct energy recovery system that applies a varying magnetic field is proposed for a negative-ion-based neutral beam injection system (NNB) to heat a plasma and/or drive a plasma current in a fusion reactor. The output beam energy and power of such an NNB will be ∼1 MeV and ∼ 10 MW/beamline, respectively, and nearly the same amounts of positive- and negative-ion beams remain unneutralized in an NNB by using a gas-neutralizing cell. Therefore, the output of a beam direct converter in an NNB is a bipolar direct current (dc) electric power with close to ±1 MV and several amperes if a conventional electrostatic or magnetostatic field is applied for ion beam separation. However, such high-voltage dc power is difficult to handle at the point of the regeneration of the power back to a commercial electric line because a very high voltage inverter tough enough to withstand occasional sparkdowns at recovery electrodes is required. If residual positive- and negative-ion beams are introduced to two or more electrodes in turn by a varying magnetic field, an alternating current (ac) electric power can be produced directly. The ac voltage can be easily lowered by a stepdown transformer, and a conventional, low-voltage inverter can be used. Such a beam direct converter will greatly reduce the technological difficulty involved in the regeneration of a recovered electric energy. The total efficiency of an NNB will be improved from ∼45 to ∼70% with a beam direct converter.