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
Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
Meeting Spotlight
2021 Student Conference
April 8–10, 2021
Virtual Meeting
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
Feb 2021
Jul 2020
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
March 2021
Nuclear Technology
February 2021
Fusion Science and Technology
January 2021
Latest News
Researchers report fastest purification of astatine-211 needed for targeted cancer therapy
Astatine-211 recovery from bismuth metal using a chromatography system. Unlike bismuth, astatine-211 forms chemical bonds with ketones.
In a recent study, Texas A&M University researchers have described a new process to purify astatine-211, a promising radioactive isotope for targeted cancer treatment. Unlike other elaborate purification methods, their technique can extract astatine-211 from bismuth in minutes rather than hours, which can greatly reduce the time between production and delivery to the patient.
“Astatine-211 is currently under evaluation as a cancer therapeutic in clinical trials. But the problem is that the supply chain for this element is very limited because only a few places worldwide can make it,” said Jonathan Burns, research scientist in the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station’s Nuclear Engineering and Science Center. “Texas A&M University is one of a handful of places in the world that can make astatine-211, and we have delineated a rapid astatine-211 separation process that increases the usable quantity of this isotope for research and therapeutic purposes.”
The researchers added that this separation method will bring Texas A&M one step closer to being able to provide astatine-211 for distribution through the Department of Energy’s Isotope Program’s National Isotope Development Center as part of the University Isotope Network.
Details on the chemical reaction to purify astatine-211 are in the journal Separation and Purification Technology.
K. Tsuzuki, H. Kimura, Y. Kusama, M. Sato, H. Kawashima, K. Kamiya, K. Shinohara, H. Ogawa, K. Uehara, G. Kurita, S. Kasai, K. Hoshino, N. Isei, Y. Miura, M. Yamamoto, K. Kikuchi, T. Shibata, M. Bakhtiari, T. Hino, Y. Hirohata, Y. Yamauchi, K. Yamaguchi, H. Tsutsui, R. Shimada, H. Amemiya, Y. Nagashima, T. Ido, Y. Hamada
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 49 | Number 2 | February 2006 | Pages 197-208
Technical Paper | JFT-2M Tokamak | dx.doi.org/10.13182/FST06-A1095
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Compatibility between plasma and reduced activation ferritic steel, which is the leading candidate for the structural material of a fusion demonstration reactor, has been investigated in the Advanced Material Tokamak EXperiment (AMTEX). Ferritic plates (FPs) were installed progressively in the JFT-2M tokamak. The effect of ferromagnetism on plasma production, control, confinement, and stability has been investigated. Impurity release behavior has also been investigated. Even when the inside vacuum vessel wall was fully covered with the FPs and the tokamak plasma was operated close to the wall, no deleterious effect was observed, and the normalized beta could be increased up to ~3.5. Thus, encouraging results are obtained for application of this material to the demonstration reactor.
