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
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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
Sep 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
September 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
August 2025
Latest News
Schulz Electric™ Refurbishes Critical Circulating Water Pump Motor in Only Four Days
Schulz Electric™ was contacted by a nuclear power plant in the New England region that serves a community of over 2 million homes. After five years of service, a 1500 HP, 4 kV, 24-pole circulating water pump motor (measuring approximately 7’ wide, 8’ tall, and weighing several tons) needed refurbishing while the plant was still online. To add to their concern, the power plant is located close to the ocean. The aging motor was not only approaching the end of its serviceable life, but was highly susceptible to moisture intrusion and the salt-laden air, which can build up in air passages within the motor. These environmental conditions can lead to elevated operating temperatures and corrosion developing on the rotor, stator, and shaft components. These factors combined, placed the plant at an increased risk of downtime that could have potentially led to a significant loss of revenue if they were forced into a shutdown event.
J. Nadler, T. Hochberg, Y. Gu, O. Barnouin, G. Miley
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 20 | Number 4 | December 1991 | Pages 850-857
Electrostatic Confined Fusion | doi.org/10.13182/FST91-A11946948
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Inertial-Electrostatic Confinement (IEC) is an alternative approach to fusion power that potentially offers the ability to burn advanced fuels like D-He3 in a non-Maxwellian, high density core. These aneutronic reactions are ideal for direct energy conversion; since the products energetic ions, they also offer high specific impulse for space propulsion.
The results presented here are the first potential well measurements of an IEC-type device via a collimated proton detector. They indicate that a ~15-kV virtual anode, at least one centimeter in radius, has formed in a spherical device with a cathode potential of 30 kV, and a current of 12 mA. Numerical analysis indicates D+ densities on the order of 109 cm-3, and D+2 densities on the order of 1010 cm-3.
Virtual well formation is very important to IEC devices because they are, in effect, 100% transparent electrodes that can create an electrostatic well to confine energetic ions. A brief description of the theory of IEC is given, followed by a greater description of the results.
