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 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
Feb 2026
Jul 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
March 2026
Nuclear Technology
February 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
January 2026
Latest News
Fusion energy: Progress, partnerships, and the path to deployment
Over the past decade, fusion energy has moved decisively from scientific aspiration toward a credible pathway to a new energy technology. Thanks to long-term federal support, we have significantly advanced our fundamental understanding of plasma physics—the behavior of the superheated gases at the heart of fusion devices. This knowledge will enable the creation and control of fusion fuel under conditions required for future power plants. Our progress is exemplified by breakthroughs at the National Ignition Facility and the Joint European Torus.
Hiroyuki Shidara, Kazunobu Nagasaki, Kinzo Sakamoto, Hidetoshi Yukimoto, Masahiko Nakasuga, Fumimichi Sano, Katsumi Kondo, Tohru Mizuuchi, Hiroyuki Okada, Sakae Besshou, Shinji Kobayashi, Yoshito Manabe, Hayato Kawazome, Tasho Takamiya, Yoshinori Ohno, Hiroyasu Kubo, Yusuke Nishioka, Masao Iriguchi, Masashi Kaneko, Koichi Takahashi, Yohei Fukagawa, Yuya Morita, Masaki Yamada, Shingo Nakazawa, Shintaro Tsuboi, Shigeru Nishio, Victor Orlov, Alexander Pavelyev, Alexander Tolkachev, Victor Tribaldos, Tokuhiro Obiki
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 45 | Number 1 | January 2004 | Pages 41-48
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST04-A424
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A 70-GHz electron cyclotron resonance heating (ECRH) system has been constructed in a helical-axis heliotron device, Heliotron J, in order to realize localized heating and current drive experiments. Since the Heliotron J plasma has a three-dimensional complex shape, the ECRH system is designed to satisfy the requirement of wide steering capability in both the toroidal and poloidal directions. The low-power transmission test shows that the beam radius of the focused Gaussian beam is 22 mm at the magnetic axis, which is small enough compared to the averaged minor plasma radius (170 mm), and the launching system covers a wide toroidal steering range from perpendicular to tangential injection by replacing the steering plane mirror. Since these characteristics satisfy the condition for controlling the power localization in the three-dimensional helical-axis configuration, it is possible to explore the on- and off-axis heating over most of the plasma radius (0 < r/a < 0.7) and the electron cyclotron current drive. In the high-power transmission test, the transmission efficiency of the 20-m corrugated waveguide is 92%, and the available output power to the vacuum vessel is up to 0.4 MW. Plasma production and heating are successfully performed using this ECRH system.