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.
Meeting 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
The U.S. Million Person Study of Low-Dose-Rate Health Effects
There is a critical knowledge gap regarding the health consequences of exposure to radiation received gradually over time. While there is a plethora of studies on the risks of adverse outcomes from both acute and high-dose exposures, including the landmark study of atomic bomb survivors, these are not characteristic of the chronic exposure to low-dose radiation encountered in occupational and public settings. In addition, smaller cohorts have limited numbers leading to reduced statistical power.
I. Maya, Hugh D. Campbell
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 4 | Number 2 | September 1983 | Pages 135-140
Plasma Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST83-A22857
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An analysis of the thermal balance of a fusioning plasma from a control system perspective has been performed. The requirements for stability and the response characteristics of the thermal balance have been evaluated. The results show that open-loop equilibria are characterized by restrictively narrow stable operating temperature regimes and generally poor system performance. Closed-loop proportional feedback using the fuel feedrate and injection energy can be used to extend the stable operating temperature regime and significantly improve the system response. Thus, high open-loop temperature overshoots without neutral beam injection can be reduced to acceptable levels at temperatures as low as 20 keV, with a decrease in the settling time to under 30 sec. With 75 keV injection energy, acceptable overshoot can be obtained at plasma temperatures as low as 10 keV, with the time-to-peak below 20 sec and settling times less than 30 sec. It is still difficult to simultaneously satisfy overshoot and speed of response requirements at low temperatures with low feedback fractions. Additional improvement is available using proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control.