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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.
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2025 ANS Annual Conference
June 15–18, 2025
Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott Downtown
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!
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Latest News
Nuclear fuel cycle reimagined: Powering the next frontiers from nuclear waste
In the fall of 2023, a small Zeno Power team accomplished a major feat: they demonstrated the first strontium-90 heat source in decades—and the first-ever by a commercial company.
Zeno Power worked with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to fabricate and validate this Z1 heat source design at the lab’s Radiochemical Processing Laboratory. The Z1 demonstration heralded renewed interest in developing radioisotope power system (RPS) technology. In early 2025, the heat source was disassembled, and the Sr-90 was returned to the U.S. Department of Energy for continued use.
L. A. El-Guebaly, A. Jaber, S. Malang, ARIES-ACT Team
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 61 | Number 4 | May 2012 | Pages 321-331
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST11-451
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
There is a strong indication that the dual-cooled LiPb blanket is the preferred concept for many fusion power plants being designed around the world. The ability of the blanket to provide tritium self-sufficiency is among the important issues that we investigated in detail for ARIES-ACT to pinpoint the design elements that degrade the breeding the most, using state-of-the-art neutronics codes. A novel stepwise approach was developed to identify the exact cause of the degradation in the tritium breeding ratio (TBR), initially 1.8 for an ideal system, reaching 1.05 for a practical design. More broadly, this paper gives many insights into the impact that internal components of the blanket as well as essential parts of a tokamak can have on the TBR and the more damaging or enhancing conditions or changes to the breeding. To overcome the challenges of dealing with all tritium-related uncertainties in several subsystems, we suggest adjusting the Li enrichment online during operation to mitigate concerns about the danger of placing the plant at risk due to tritium shortage as well as the problem of handling and safeguarding any surplus of tritium.