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
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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
Sep 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
October 2025
Nuclear Technology
September 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
IAEA again raises global nuclear power projections
Noting recent momentum behind nuclear power, the International Atomic Energy Agency has revised up its projections for the expansion of nuclear power, estimating that global nuclear operational capacity will more than double by 2050—reaching 2.6 times the 2024 level—with small modular reactors expected to play a pivotal role in this high-case scenario.
IAEA director general Rafael Mariano Grossi announced the new projections, contained in the annual report Energy, Electricity, and Nuclear Power Estimates for the Period up to 2050 at the 69th IAEA General Conference in Vienna.
In the report’s high-case scenario, nuclear electrical generating capacity is projected to increase to from 377 GW at the end of 2024 to 992 GW by 2050. In a low-case scenario, capacity rises 50 percent, compared with 2024, to 561 GW. SMRs are projected to account for 24 percent of the new capacity added in the high case and for 5 percent in the low case.
J. F. Hund, J. W. Crippen, K. Clark, N. Martinez, D. J. Jasion, M. P. Farrell, D. T. Frey
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 63 | Number 2 | March-April 2013 | Pages 252-256
Technical Paper | Selected papers from 20th Target Fabrication Meeting, May 20-24, 2012, Santa Fe, NM, Guest Editor: Robert C. Cook | doi.org/10.13182/FST13-A16346
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The National Ignition Campaign (NIC) target consists of precisely machined and assembled components. A subset of the components of this target is the aluminum shielding around the silicon support and cooling arms, which is designed to alleviate harmful unconverted light reflecting from the arms into the laser optics. This NIC target shielding consists of two external shields and four inner shields located between the arms. Recently, we have developed a process to add a plastic coating to the shields with precisely defined edges that can survive pressing the part into a three-dimensional shape. After this process was demonstrated on prototypes, it was further refined to improve yield and is currently being used to fabricate and deliver parts for NIC experiments on a regular basis. The final process that we developed consists of seven steps to fabricate these shields: (1) applying a photolithographed plastic layer to electrically isolate the shields from the electrical traces on the cooling arms, (2) plasma etching to improve adhesion during the subsequent aluminum coating, (3) large-batch electron-beam aluminum coating, (4) laser cutting and custom die cutting to various shapes and specified patterns, (5) utilizing heat pressing techniques that soften the plastic coating enough to be coined into a three-dimensional shape, (6) accurate positioning and bonding of Mylar liners under the tops of the shields, and (7) final characterization. Through these process steps high process yields were achieved against the rigorous NIC requirements.