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
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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
October 2025
Latest News
DOE awards $134M for fusion research and development
The Department of Energy announced on Wednesday that it has awarded $134 million in funding for two programs designed to secure U.S. leadership in emerging fusion technologies and innovation. The funding was awarded through the DOE’s Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) program in the Office of Science and will support the next round of Fusion Innovation Research Engine (FIRE) collaboratives and the Innovation Network for Fusion Energy (INFUSE) awards.
Isao Murata, Shingo Tamaki, Sachie Kusaka, Indah Rosidah Maemunah, Fuminobu Sato, Hiroyuki Miyamaru, Shigeo Yoshida
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 79 | Number 4 | May 2023 | Pages 465-475
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2022.2151280
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A fusion reactor is known as a neutron-rich nuclear energy source. In this paper, neutrons are utilized to form an epithermal neutron irradiation field for boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT). Using the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) facility, a beam shaping assembly (BSA) was designed and placed just before the biological shield. Treatments were planned to be carried out just outside the biological shield. An opening was prepared in the vacuum vessel to guide deuteron-triton neutrons to the BSA. The BSA is about 1 m in thickness, and on the outside surface of the BSA, an epithermal neutron flux of 1 × 109 n/s‧cm−2 was aimed. As a result of the design, the irradiation field successfully met the design criteria of the BSA advocated by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The BSA moderator consists of a first filter of 45-cm-thick iron and a second filter of 70-cm-radius and 40-cm-thick AlF3. The epithermal neutron beam was available for diameters from 10 to 20 cm to cope with various sizes of tumors. Also, a titanium layer was specially introduced to remove fast neutrons just above 10 keV to reduce the fast neutron contribution. In addition, a caldera-shaped collimator was set just outside of the BSA to form a broad beam and to make the current-to-flux ratio larger than 0.7. It was shown from the present design that the performance was confirmed to be excellent compared to other BNCT facilities available at present, meaning that even deep-seated cancer treatment could be realized in the future in ITER.