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.
Ray A. Hunter
John J. Dorning
University of Wisconsin-Madison (First Place)Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (Second Place)Texas A&M Third Place
Timothy E. Valentine
Robert E. SchenterDonald H. Williams
Joseph M. Hendrie
Small Local SectionsLong Island (Meritorious, Best Public Information and Education, Best Section Management)Eastern Washington (Best Membership)Washington DC (Best Meetings and Programs)Large Local SectionsIdaho (Meritorious)International Local SectionsJapan (Best Meetings and Programs, Best Section Management)
FFTF OperationsMaintenanceEngineeringin recognition of disciplined defueling operations and storage operations of spent mixed oxide fuel
Christopher L. Castrianni
G. Robert Odette
Bernadette L. KirkMartine Griffon-Fouco
Nasr Ghoniem
Hyman G. RickoverRobert R. SeidelUnited States Naval Nuclear Propulsion ProgramGerald Woodcock
Pierre LecocqHerve Freslon
Seymour Katcoff
Ambassador Richard T. Kennedy
Raymond W. Durante
Marilyn D. Weber
GraduateGeorgia Institute of TechnologyL. aldridge, R. Beilke, L. Bryson, E. Davidson, T. Deterding, J. Evans, E. Fort, R. Jeffcoat, S. Klima, M. McLain, A. Nielsen, M. O'Neill, G. Poe, H. Rehman, B. Rose, G. Roach, A. Rodriguez, R. Still, D. Thomas, M. ValenzanoUniversity of TennesseeL. Attieh, D. Bentizinger, L. Berg, D. Evans, D. Pointer, M. WyattUndergraduatePurdue UniversityMichael Bartel, Robert Miller, Benjamin WilsonUniversity of TennesseeW. Bird, S. Brame, C. Duck, M. Eakin, D. Ho
Wolfgang Wulff
John Wesley
Harold W. Lewis
Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating StationGPU NuclearCrystal River 3Florida Power Corporation
Harold B. Ray Southern California Edison
Dr. Gerald C. Pomraning posthumouslyRafael B. Perez
Eugene P. Wilkinson
