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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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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Fusion Science and Technology
October 2025
Latest News
Shifting the paradigm of supply chain
Chad Wolf
When I began my nuclear career, I was coached up in the nuclear energy culture of the day to “run silent, run deep,” a mindset rooted in the U.S. Navy’s submarine philosophy. That was the norm—until Fukushima.
The nuclear renaissance that many had envisioned hit a wall. The focus shifted from expansion to survival. Many utility communications efforts pivoted from silence to broadcast, showcasing nuclear energy’s elegance and reliability. Nevertheless, despite being clean baseload 24/7 power that delivered a 90 percent capacity factor or higher, nuclear energy was painted as risky and expensive (alongside energy policies and incentives that favored renewables).
Economics became a driving force threatening to shutter nuclear power. The Delivering the Nuclear Promise initiative launched in 2015 challenged the industry to sustain high performance yet cut costs by up to 30 percent.
Mohamed A. Abdou
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 8 | Number 1 | July 1985 | Pages 1081-1090
Nuclear Technology Development Issue and Need (Finesse) | Proceedings of the Sixth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (San Francisco, California, March 3-7, 1985) | doi.org/10.13182/FST85-A39916
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
FINESSE is a study concerned with technical planning of experiments and facilities for fusion nuclear technology research and development. The effort is focused on: a) understanding the key issues, b) developing the scientific basis for engineering scaling and experimental planning, and c) identifying the characteristics, role and timing of major facilities required. Fusion nuclear technology is found to have many of fusion's remaining unresolved feasibility and attractiveness issues. Resolving these issues requires new knowledge from experiments and theory. Non-neutron test stands can play an important role in liquid metal blanket experiments. Fission reactors have some limitations, but they provide the bulk heating and radiation effects necessary for many solid breeder blanket experiments. Concept verification for fusion nuclear components may not be possible prior to testing in fusion devices.