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
Mar 2026
Jul 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
March 2026
Nuclear Technology
February 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
April 2026
Latest News
Pacific Fusion pulsed-power facility to host external users
Concept art of Pacific Fusion’s demonstration system. (Image: Pacific Fusion)
Pacific Fusion is preparing to start construction on a pulsed-power inertial fusion facility in New Mexico, and today the company announced it is seeking expressions of interest from researchers in industry, academia, and government who may want to run experiments at the facility.
H. Xu, H. Huang, J. Walker, C. Kong, N. G. Rice, M. P. Mauldin, J. D. Vocke, J. H. Bae, W. Sweet, F. H. Elsner, M. P. Farrell, Y. M. Wang, C. Alford, T. Cardenas, E. Loomis
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 73 | Number 3 | April 2018 | Pages 354-362
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1387459
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Double-shell inertial confinement fusion targets represent a unique platform for achieving ignition. They consist of a low-Z outer ablator, a high-Z inner pusher layer, and a low-density foam layer sandwiched in between. There is the possibility that double-shell targets may achieve ignition at lower ion temperatures due to the containment of radiation and conduction losses as well as requiring smaller convergence ratios. We have explored using magnetron sputtering to make the inner high-Z pusher layers and have demonstrated a W-Cr bilayer inner-shell design. An Al-Be mixture was explored as one of the outer ablator materials. This material takes advantage of Al X-ray M-band absorption to reduce preheating and still retain Be high-ablation speeds. Typical commercial Al-Be materials suffer from phase separation. However, by using magnetron sputtering we have been able to demonstrate homogeneous Al-Be ablator coatings. The sputtered material forms with nanosized grains and has demonstrated excellent machinability. As a second type of shell explored, pushered single shells can exploit large density gradients to stabilize Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities during compression. Sharp gradients will have higher ignition yields and larger grading lengths will be more stable. We were able to demonstrate pushered single shells made from W-Be gradient layers with various grading slopes and provide simulated results showing that the grading profiles can be influenced by the coating rates of two components.