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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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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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Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
October 2025
Latest News
Shifting the paradigm of supply chain
Chad Wolf
When I began my nuclear career, I was coached up in the nuclear energy culture of the day to “run silent, run deep,” a mindset rooted in the U.S. Navy’s submarine philosophy. That was the norm—until Fukushima.
The nuclear renaissance that many had envisioned hit a wall. The focus shifted from expansion to survival. Many utility communications efforts pivoted from silence to broadcast, showcasing nuclear energy’s elegance and reliability. Nevertheless, despite being clean baseload 24/7 power that delivered a 90 percent capacity factor or higher, nuclear energy was painted as risky and expensive (alongside energy policies and incentives that favored renewables).
Economics became a driving force threatening to shutter nuclear power. The Delivering the Nuclear Promise initiative launched in 2015 challenged the industry to sustain high performance yet cut costs by up to 30 percent.
Matthew Bono, Don Bennett, Carlos Castro, Joe Satcher, John Poco, Bill Brown, Harry Martz, Nick Teslich, Robin Hibbard, Alex Hamza, Peter Amendt, Harry Robey, Jose Milovich, Russell Wallace
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 51 | Number 4 | May 2007 | Pages 611-625
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST07-A1453
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Indirectly driven double shell implosions are being investigated as a possible noncryogenic path to ignition on the National Ignition Facility. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory has made several technological advances that have produced double shell targets that represent a significant improvement to previously fielded targets. The inner capsule is supported inside the ablator shell by SiO2 aerogel with a nominal density of 50 mg/cm3. The aerogel is cast around the inner capsule and then machined concentric to it. The seamless sphere of aerogel containing the embedded capsule is then assembled between the two halves of the ablator shell. The concentricity between the two shells has been improved to less than 1.5 m. The ablator shell consists of two hemispherical shells that mate at a step joint that incorporates a gap with a nominal thickness of 0.1 m. Using a new flexure-based tool holder that precisely positions the diamond cutting tool on the diamond turning machine, step discontinuities on the inner surface of the ablator of less than 0.5 m have been achieved. New methods have been used to comprehensively characterize each of the targets using high-resolution x-ray imaging systems.
