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.
Division Spotlight
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
Meeting Spotlight
Nuclear and Emerging Technologies for Space (NETS 2025)
May 4–8, 2025
Huntsville, AL|Huntsville Marriott and the Space & Rocket Center
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
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
U.S. nuclear capacity factors: Stability and energy dominance
Nuclear generation has inertia. Massive spinning turbines keep electricity flowing during grid disturbances. But nuclear generation also has a kind of inertia that isn’t governed by the laws of motion.
Starting—and then finishing—a power reactor construction project requires significant upfront effort and money, but once built a reactor can run for decades. Capacity factors of U.S. reactors have remained near 90 percent since the turn of the century, but it took more than a decade of improvements to reach that steady state. The payoff for nuclear investments is long-term and reliable.
B. Sieglin, M. Faitsch, A. Herrmann, S. Martinov, T. Eich, ASDEX Upgrade Team
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 69 | Number 3 | May 2016 | Pages 580-585
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST15-183
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Infrared (IR) thermography is a widely used tool in fusion research to study the thermal load onto plasma-facing components. In present-day fusion experiments with short-pulse duration, off-line data analysis is still feasible. For devices with long-pulse duration and actively cooled plasma-facing components, IR thermography is a common tool for machine protection. In future fusion devices with long-pulse duration, online data evaluation of the thermography measurement for additional physics studies is required. Real-time–capable IR thermography was developed at ASDEX Upgrade. The feasibility of real-time thermography is discussed in this work. The evaluation process from raw data to evaluated temperature and heat flux is shown. The real-time version of the THEODOR code allows online calculation of the heat flux. Exploiting the possibility of the IR system to change the integration time during acquisition opens up the possibility to have automated thermography. The current status of the thermography system at ASDEX Upgrade and future developments for its improvement are discussed.
