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
Jul 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
September 2025
Nuclear Technology
August 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Deep geologic repository progress—2025 Update
Editor's note: This article has was originally published in November 2023. It has been updated with new information as of June 2025.
Outside my office, there is a display case filled with rock samples from all over the world. It contains a disk of translucent, orange salt from the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M.; a core of white-and-bronze gneiss from the site of the future deep geologic repository in Eurajoki, Finland; several angular chunks of fine-grained, gray claystone from the underground research laboratory at Bure, France; and a piece of coarse-grained granite from the underground research tunnel in Daejeon, South Korea.
F. N. Si, F. X. Chen, D. Wang
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 78 | Number 6 | August 2022 | Pages 468-474
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2022.2049120
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A backlighting system is developed for Z-pinch experiments that is composed of a pulsed X-ray generator (the backlighter), a scintillator, an optical module, and an intensified charge-coupled device (ICCD). By optimizing the geometrical layout, choosing the appropriate scintillator, and optimizing the parameters of the optical module, the system is successfully designed. The key properties of the system are theoretically calculated based on parameters of the X-rays and the scintillator. Calculation results of sensitivity show that the amount of scintillator fluorescence falls in the linear dynamic range of the ICCD. Spatial resolution is calculated to be 241 µm, which is mainly determined by the geometrical layout and the size of the X-ray focal spot. Temporal resolution is calculated to be 2.3 ns, which is mainly determined by the decay time of the scintillator. Calculation results indicate that the properties of the system meet the requirements of the Z-pinch capsule diagnostics. The system has been fabricated. Performance of the system is tested through static W wire experiments in the laboratory. Experimental results show that 250-µm W wire is clearly seen in the image when X-ray fluence is high, while 100-µm W wire cannot be seen.