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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
NRC nominee Nieh commits to independent safety mission
During a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing today, Ho Nieh, President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as a commissioner at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, was urged to maintain the agency’s independence regardless of political pressure from the Trump administration.
J. Andre, R. Botrel, J. Schunck, A. Pinay, C. Chicanne, M. Theobald
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 70 | Number 2 | August-September 2016 | Pages 237-243
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST15-241
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To produce the laser targets needed for laser plasma experiments, the CEA target department uses different mechanical machining techniques and develops methods that are consistent with the target requirements in terms of quality, timing, and cost.
Combining these aims involves several challenges. First, laser experiments need a wide range of target geometries with common points: reduced dimensions (millimetric range) and thin walls (micrometric range), as well as very strict dimensional and geometric specifications. According to these requirements, the target specifications demand the machining of different kinds of materials from metals (aluminum, copper, and gold) to polymers and low-density foams.
In this context, the versatility of the machining processes is the key issue. These challenges necessitate the development and upgrading of machining techniques and methods as well as optimizing the engineering design to use the full potential of these techniques. In this presentation, three main machining processes are developed and illustrated: adaptations of machine tools for planar targets (by the flycutting method) and for machining complex shapes (combined milling and turning), the development of the original process to produce a baffle hohlraum, and the parametric optimizations of machining tantalum aerogel.