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
Feb 2026
Jul 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
February 2026
Nuclear Technology
January 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
DOE announces NEPA exclusion for advanced reactors
The Department of Energy has announced that it is establishing a categorical exclusion for the application of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) procedures to the authorization, siting, construction, operation, reauthorization, and decommissioning of advanced nuclear reactors.
According to the DOE, this significant change, which goes into effect today, “is based on the experience of DOE and other federal agencies, current technologies, regulatory requirements, and accepted industry practice.”
H. W. Kugel, H. P. Eubank, T. A. Kozub, M. D. Williams, M. Ulrickson
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 9 | Number 3 | May 1986 | Pages 401-407
Technical Paper | Plasma Heating System | doi.org/10.13182/FST86-A24728
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
During 2 yr of experimental operations, the Poloidal Divertor Experiment (PDX) inner wall neutral beam graphite armor provided protection for perpendicular heating injections into normal and disruptive plasmas as well as injections in the absence of plasma for special experiments, calibrations, and tests involving the optimization and development of the PDX neutral beam injection system. About 80 to 100 heating injections occurred per operating day, at a 360-s duty cycle, into plasmas of various densities, and typically ~5 to 50% of the injected neutral beam power was transmitted to the armor. More than 103 neutral beam pulses of 100- to 300-ms duration were injected in the absence of plasma at peak power densities of 1.5 to 3 kW/cm2, yielding peak surface temperatures of 950 to 1550°C. There was no significant impurity production attributable to beam heating of the armor, and no observed beam-induced, macroscopic surface damage. Many of the design constraints and performance issues encountered in this work are relevant to the design of larger fusion devices.