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 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
Latest Magazine Issues
Aug 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
October 2026
Nuclear Technology
September 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
August 2026
Latest News
Copper melting behavior at extreme temperatures could inform fusion materials
Using SLAC’s electron camera, researchers recorded timestamps of solid copper atoms (orange) as they melted (yellow) after being blasted with laser heat. This graphic shows how copper atoms changed over a period of several femtoseconds (millionths of a billionth of a second), notated here as fractions of a picosecond. Instead of the predicted collapse, the researchers saw a gradual melting. (Image: Greg Stewart/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
The SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory has announced researchers have conducted experiments testing how copper melts under extreme conditions, such as those it might be exposed to in a fusion machine. The results, published in Nature Communications, found that a copper thin film was more resilient to melting than models had predicted, uncovering molecular dynamics that had been missing from calculations.
“These results greatly improve the simulations we use to predict which materials have the best shot at surviving the extreme conditions of future fusion reaction chambers,” said Mianzhen Mo, the SLAC staff scientist who led the research.
Walker Lee Cisler
Glenn F. Knoll
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (First Place)Mississippi State University Second PlaceUniversity of Florida (Second Place)Kansas State University (Honorable Mention)University of Lowell (Honorable Mention)University of Maryland (Honorable Mention)University of Missouri-Columbia (Honorable Mention)University of Wisconsin-Madison (Honorable Mention)
Robert W. Wiesener
Glenn E. Lucas
Sara A. Morabito
Long Island (Meritorious, Small)Eastern Carolinas (Meritorious, Large)Austria (Meritorious, International)Eastern Carolinas (Best Membership, Best Meetings and Programs)Eastern Washington (Best Public Information and Education)Idaho (Best Section Management)
Graham M. Leitch (Philadelphia Electric CompanyLimerick Generating Station)W. T. Ullrich (Tennessee Valley AuthorityBrowns Ferry Unit 3 Restart)
Ricardo C. DeBarros
Big Rock Point Nuclear Plant Belgian Reactor 3 (BR3) Dresden Nuclear Station Unit 1 Room 307, Gilman Hall (University of California, Berkeley)NS Savannah at Patriots Point ORNL's Graphite Reactor Penn State Breazeale Reactor
Bernice E. Paige
Gregory R. ChoppinNuclear Safety JournalSammuel Untermyer II
David K. Trubey
William S. Lee
H. "Peter" PlanchonJohn I. Sackett
GraduateUniversity off Tennessee - KnoxvilleBenan Basoglu, Agus Cahyono, Michael Corum, Andreas Ikonomopoulos, Thomas Radcliff, Michael TravisUndergraduateArizona State UniversityGerald Hunter, Mary Inman, Shawn PautzHonorable Mention - GraduateUniversity of Texas, AustinSteven Manson, Arnold PreeceHonorable Mention - UndergraduateUniversity of New MexicoBrian Hunt, Michael Lake, Julie Minton, Ned Alan Morley
Hans K. Fauske
Nikolai G. BasovHeinrich HoraJohn H. NuckollsChiyoe Yamanaka
Francois X. Cogne
Alvin M. Weinberg
Frank Bevilacqua
