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 Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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
Dec 2025
Jul 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
December 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
November 2025
Latest News
Hanford completes 20 containers of immobilized waste
The Department of Energy has announced that the Hanford Site’s Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) has reached a commissioning milestone, producing more than 20 stainless steel containers of immobilized low-activity radioactive waste.
L. El-Guebaly, L. Cadwallader, W. Sowder, ARIES Team
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 60 | Number 2 | August 2011 | Pages 751-759
Safety & Environment | Proceedings of the Nineteenth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (TOFE) (Part 2) | doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A12475
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
At present, there are no regulatory guidelines to follow for US fusion power plant construction and operation. Thus far, the Department of Energy (DOE) has been regulating existing fusion experiments, following the 1996-1999 DOE Fusion Standards and using the spirit of the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) code. Considering this reality, a few options emerged for licensing ARIES-type power plants and the like. Developing new fusion-specific regulations stands out as the most logical option, but requires well-coordinated effort between DOE, regulatory agencies, and the fusion community with considerable funding and long lead-time. Nevertheless, a few recent developments seem promising: 1) The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) plans to assert regulatory jurisdiction over commercial fusion devices, and 2) the ongoing effort within ASME will develop rules for the construction of fusion-energy-related components. The most recent NRC, ASME and fusion licensing developments are reviewed in this paper. In addition, an interesting comparison with ITER was made to foresee how US fusion power plants could leverage from ITER.