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Division Spotlight
Nuclear Installations Safety
Devoted specifically to the safety of nuclear installations and the health and safety of the public, this division seeks a better understanding of the role of safety in the design, construction and operation of nuclear installation facilities. The division also promotes engineering and scientific technology advancement associated with the safety of such facilities.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
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!
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Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2025
Nuclear Technology
May 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
The 2025 ANS election results are in!
Spring marks the passing of the torch for American Nuclear Society leadership. During this election cycle, ANS members voted for the newest vice president/president-elect, treasurer, and six board of director positions (four U.S., one non-U.S., one student). New professional division leadership was also decided on in this election, which opened February 25 and closed April 15. About 21 percent of eligible members of the Society voted—a similar turnout to last year.
G. L. Kulcinski, J. F. Santarius, G. A. Emmert, R. L. Bonomo, G. E. Becerra, A. N. Fancher, L. M. Garrison, K. B. Hall, M. J. Jasica, A. M. McEvoy, M. X. Navarro, M. K. Michalak, C. M. Schuff
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 68 | Number 2 | September 2015 | Pages 314-318
Technical Paper | Proceedings of TOFE-2014 | doi.org/10.13182/FST14-934
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
For nearly two decades, as many as 4 Inertial Electrostatic Confinement (IEC) devices have been operated simultaneously at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Over that time period we have learned that the early perceptions of how IEC devices operate are quite different from the actual performance in the Laboratory. Over the past 2 years we have gained even more understanding of IEC physics and technology. Experimental measurements and theoretical improvements have better characterized both the negative ions that contribute up to ~10% of the fusion rate in some cases and the neutral energy distributions in IEC devices at moderate pressure (0.07-0.7 Pa ≈ 0.5-5 mTorr). We also now understand more of why operation with helium plasmas has such a detrimental effect on high voltage performance of the traditional tungsten alloy grid wires. Most of the previous IEC work had been confined to < 100 kV with short operation times up to 150 kV. We have recently expanded our operating regime to ≈ 200 kV anode-cathode potential difference, which is, to our knowledge, the highest-voltage IEC operation reported in the worldwide IEC literature. Several design modifications were required to achieve steady state operation at these high voltages and some are described in this article.