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.
Division Spotlight
Nuclear Criticality Safety
NCSD provides communication among nuclear criticality safety professionals through the development of standards, the evolution of training methods and materials, the presentation of technical data and procedures, and the creation of specialty publications. In these ways, the division furthers the exchange of technical information on nuclear criticality safety with the ultimate goal of promoting the safe handling of fissionable materials outside reactors.
Meeting Spotlight
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
May 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
July 2025
Nuclear Technology
June 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
High-temperature plumbing and advanced reactors
The use of nuclear fission power and its role in impacting climate change is hotly debated. Fission advocates argue that short-term solutions would involve the rapid deployment of Gen III+ nuclear reactors, like Vogtle-3 and -4, while long-term climate change impact would rely on the creation and implementation of Gen IV reactors, “inherently safe” reactors that use passive laws of physics and chemistry rather than active controls such as valves and pumps to operate safely. While Gen IV reactors vary in many ways, one thing unites nearly all of them: the use of exotic, high-temperature coolants. These fluids, like molten salts and liquid metals, can enable reactor engineers to design much safer nuclear reactors—ultimately because the boiling point of each fluid is extremely high. Fluids that remain liquid over large temperature ranges can provide good heat transfer through many demanding conditions, all with minimal pressurization. Although the most apparent use for these fluids is advanced fission power, they have the potential to be applied to other power generation sources such as fusion, thermal storage, solar, or high-temperature process heat.1–3
R.B Stephens, S.W. Haan, D.C. Wilson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 41 | Number 3 | May 2002 | Pages 226-233
Technical Paper | Fourteenth Target Fabrication Specialists' Meeting | doi.org/10.13182/FST02-A17904
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Successful ignition in NIF will require targets that meet stringent standards as to symmetry, composition, and dimensions. We describe here the current understanding of specifications for baseline indirect drive targets of each of the three types of ablators: beryllium, polyimide, and plasma polymer. These specifications include the range of values for all targets of each group, and the variation in value allowed in a specific target of that group. They cover all of the components which make up a target, and which are critical to an implosion: the hohlraum and its components — windows, capsule support foil and gas fill — and the shell and its DT ice layer. These specifications are preliminary and incomplete; they will necessarily evolve with design details and with increasing understanding of target dynamics. They are compiled here as a reference for the ICF community and a basis on which to plan future work: to fill in the gaps and to develop thenecessary characterization techniques. Future work will also include the requirements for direct drive targets.
