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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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Fusion Science and Technology
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.
B. A. Vermillion, J. T. Bousquet, R. E. Andrews, M. Thi, M. L. Hoppe, E. R. Castillo, A. Nikroo, D. T. Goodin, G. E. Besenbruch
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 51 | Number 4 | May 2007 | Pages 791-794
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST07-A1481
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Providing glow discharge polymer (GDP) coatings is a key step in Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) target production. Typical target delivery quantities may require several GDP coating runs consisting of up to 80 mandrels per batch. This work undertakes research and development to create a new configuration for the GDP coating apparatus that will enable batch sizes into the hundreds or thousands. This will reduce costs associated with target production and make delivery of ICF targets more efficient. In addition, there is a synergy between this work and Inertial Fusion Energy's (IFE's) need for half a million targets per day for energy production, as well as future commercial applications. Recently we have demonstrated the capability to meet the NIF CH surface standard, confirmed via statistical sampling, in a 400 capsule batch coated with 10 m of GDP, a key benchmark for successful coatings.
