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 Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Dec 2025
Jul 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
January 2026
Nuclear Technology
December 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
November 2025
Latest News
What’s the most difficult question you’ve been asked as a maintenance instructor?
Blye Widmar
"Where are the prints?!"
This was the final question in an onslaught of verbal feedback, comments, and critiques I received from my students back in 2019. I had two years of instructor experience and was teaching a class that had been meticulously rehearsed in preparation for an accreditation visit. I knew the training material well and transferred that knowledge effectively enough for all the students to pass the class. As we wrapped up, I asked the students how they felt about my first big system-level class, and they did not hold back.
“Why was the exam from memory when we don’t work from memory in the plant?” “Why didn’t we refer to the vendor documents?” “Why didn’t we practice more on the mock-up?” And so on.
K.-J. Boehm, N. Hash, D. Barker, T. Döppner, M. P. Farrell, P. Fitzsimmons, D. Kaczala, D. Kraus, B. Maranville, M. Mauldin, P. Neumayer, K. Segraves
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 70 | Number 2 | August-September 2016 | Pages 324-331
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST15-242
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Reconciling the experimental and system requirements during the development of a new target system is one of the most challenging tasks in the design and engineering of targets used in the National Ignition Facility.
Targets for the GigaBar 3 campaign were meant to allow the detection of extremely weak Thomson scattering from matter at extreme densities in the face of very bright backlighter and laser entry hole plasma emissions. The problem was to shield the detector sufficiently while maintaining beamline and view clearances, and observing target mass restrictions.
A new construction process, based on a rapid prototype frame structure, was used to develop this target. Details of the design process for these targets are described, and lessons from this development for production and target assembly teams are discussed.
