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
Going Nuclear: Notes from the officially unofficial book tour
I work in the analytical labs at one of Europe’s oldest and largest nuclear sites: Sellafield, in northwestern England. I spend my days at the fume hood front, pipette in one hand and radiation probe in the other (and dosimeter pinned to my chest, of course). Outside the lab, I have a second job: I moonlight as a writer and public speaker. My new popular science book—Going Nuclear: How the Atom Will Save the World—came out last summer, and it feels like my life has been running at full power ever since.
R. Raman, T. Brown, L. A. El-Guebaly, T. R. Jarboe, B. A. Nelson, J. E. Menard
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 68 | Number 3 | October 2015 | Pages 674-679
Technical Paper | Proceedings of TOFE-2014 | doi.org/10.13182/FST14-976
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Economics, design simplifications, and design optimizations, may require a Fusion Nuclear Science Facility (FNSF) based on an ST or AT concept to generate the plasma currents required for initial plasma start-up to be produced without reliance on the conventional central solenoid. The method of Transient Coaxial Helicity Injection (CHI) has been successfully used on the HIT-II device and on the thirty times larger in volume Proof-of-Principle NSTX device, to generate over 200 kA of plasma current, and to demonstrate the physics capability of this concept for the generation of substantial amounts of plasma currents in larger devices. The conceptual design of a transient CHI system for a ST-FNSF (BT = 3 T, R = 1.7 m, A = 1.7, Ip = 10 MA) is described, in which the projected start-up current generation potential is about 2 MA.