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.
W. K. Dagenhart, W. L. Gardner, W. L. Stirling, J. H. Whealton
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 4 | Number 2 | September 1983 | Pages 1430-1435
Magnet Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST83-A23057
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Scaling studies for a SITEX negative ion source to produce 200-keV, 10-A, long pulse D-beams are under way at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Designs have been restricted to the use of established techniques and reasonably welldemonstrated scaling. The results show that the 1-A SITEX source can be directly scaled to produce 200-keV, 10-A long pulse ion beams with a source power efficiency of <5 kW of total plasma generator power per ampere of D- beam generated. Extracted electron-to-D- ratios should be <0.06, with all extracted electrons recovered at <10% of the first gap potential energy difference. The close-coupled accelerating structure will be 5 em long and have five electrodes with 21 slits each, with a 50-kV/cm field in each gap. No decel electrode was included because of the transverse magnetic field. Electrons formed in each gap by the ~16% charge-exchange loss of D- in the total accelerator column will be collected by electron recovery structures associated with the gaps at an average energy of 50% of a gap's potential energy difference. Atomic gas efficiency will be >67%. Beam divergence calculations using the ORNL optics code give θrms = ±0.4°. The ion source magnetic field provides momentum dispersion of the extracted beam, separating out both the electrons and all heavy ion impurities and low energy D0 particles formed by charge exchange in the accelerating column. A D2 gas neutralization cell and a charge separation magnet provide 1 MW of D0 beam at 200 keV for injection. The overall beam line dimensions are 2.2 × 1.0 × 5.0 m (H × W × L).