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 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
Latest Magazine Issues
Jun 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
July 2026
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
May 2026
Latest News
Breaking ground on a new approach to construction
The drive to Kairos Power’s reactor demonstration site in Oak Ridge, Tenn., is not only scenic—it’s historic. Nearly 85 years ago, roughly 30,000 construction workers transformed orchards and farmland into a key Manhattan Project site. Depending on your route, you may pass by one of the three gatehouses that were once military checkpoints controlling access to Atomic Energy Commission production facilities.
Yansong Liu, Taimin Yi, Kai Wang, Xiaobo Qi, Zhibing He
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 77 | Number 6 | August 2021 | Pages 454-462
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2021.1927622
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In indirect-drive inertial confinement fusion, thin films on laser entrance hole (LEH) windows are needed to reflect thermal infrared radiation (IR) and to protect the deuterium-tritium (D-T) cryogenic shell. In this paper, a set of ultrathin aluminum films deposited on freestanding polyimide as LEH windows were studied on optical properties in the IR band. The influences of thickness and gas pressure on the IR transmittivity of these films were examined. It was found that gas pressure plays an important role in the IR transmission and microstructure changes of LEH films because of elastic modulus mismatch between aluminum and polymide. It is undoubted that the aluminum/polymide film can block thermal IR and protect the D-T cryogenic shell when gas pressure is less than 20 KPa.