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 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
Feb 2026
Jul 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
February 2026
Nuclear Technology
January 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Playing the “bad guy” to enhance next-generation safety
Sometimes, cops and robbers is more than just a kid’s game. At the Department of Energy’s national laboratories, researchers are channeling their inner saboteurs to discover vulnerabilities in next-generation nuclear reactors, making sure that they’re as safe as possible before they’re even constructed.
V. I. Davydenko et al.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 59 | Number 1 | January 2011 | Pages 128-131
doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A11590
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A series of neutral beam injectors for plasma heating and diagnostics in modern magnetic fusion devices has been developed in the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics. In ion sources of these injectors arc discharge or RF plasma boxes are used. Ion optical systems are optimized to produce ion beams with a low enough angular divergence. In order to provide beam focusing, the grids are formed as spherical segments. Such ballistically focused beams are further neutralized in a gas target and subsequently are used to heat or diagnose plasma. Obtained diagnostic neutral beams with precise focusing are widely used to measure plasma parameters by beam emission spectroscopy methods in tokamaks, stellarators, reversed field pinches and open traps. High power focused beams with small divergence are also necessary for heating of localized regions of plasma and in the devices with narrow access ports through which only small size, high power density beams can be transported. Transition to steady state operation regime of the injectors is discussed.