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
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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
Jun 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
July 2025
Latest News
World Bank, IAEA partner to fund nuclear energy
The World Bank and the International Atomic Energy Agency signed an agreement last week to cooperate on the construction and financing of advanced nuclear projects in developing countries, marking the first partnership since the bank ended its ban on funding for nuclear energy projects.
Hiromu Momota, George H. Miley
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 40 | Number 1 | July 2001 | Pages 56-65
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST01-A180
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
"Double-well" potential structure (virtual cathode formation) is studied in a stationary spherical inertial electrostatic confinement (SIEC) using the nonlinear Poisson's equation and particle densities derived from kinetic theory. A novel method to obtain a spherically symmetric stationary distribution function is introduced and an integral-differential equation is simplified by applying a relevant approximated formula for an integral. Electron and ion beams are collision-free, and their velocities are roughly aligned toward the spherical center, but with a slight divergence. Analyses show that the angular momentum of ions and the smaller one of electrons create a virtual cathode, i.e., a double-well structure, of the electrostatic potential on a potential hill near the center. The density limit of an SIEC is exhibited, and the condition relevant to form a deep potential well is presented.