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
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
Mar 2026
Jan 2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
April 2026
Nuclear Technology
February 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
RIC panel discusses pathway to fusion commercialization
Fusion leaders at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s annual Regulatory Information Conference discussed the path forward for regulating the burgeoning fusion industry. The speakers discussed government and private industry initiatives in the United States and United Kingdom, with a focus on efforts shaping the near-term deployment of commercial fusion machines.
A recurring theme was the need to explain the difference between fission and fusion. Representatives from the Department of Energy and Type One Energy highlighted this as an important distinction for regulators, as it will allow fusion to undergo its own independent maturation process for developing standards and regulations in the same way that fission has. Lea Perlas, Fusion Program director at the Virginia Department of Health, said that confusion between fission and fusion has been a common cause for misplaced concerns among community members surrounding Commonwealth Fusion Systems’ proposed fusion plant site near Richmond, Va.
Richard w. Werner, M. A. Hoffman
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 4 | Number 2 | September 1983 | Pages 1067-1072
Blanket and First Wall Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST83-A22999
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A new integrated power and breeding blanket is described. The blanket incorporates features that make it suitable for synthetic fuel production. It is matched to the thermal and electrical requirements of the General Atomic water-splitting process for producing hydrogen. The fusion reaction is the Tandem Mirror Reactor (TMR) using Mirror Advanced Reactor Study (MARS) physics. The canister blanket is a high temperature, pressure balanced, cross-flow heat exchanger contained within a low activity, independently cooled, moderate temperature, first wall structural envelope. The canister uses Li2O as the moderator/breeder and helium as the coolant. “In situ” tritium control, combined with slip stream processing and self-healing permeation barriers, assures a hydrogen product essentially free of tritium. The blanket is particularly adapted to synfuels production but is equally useful for electricity production or co-generation.