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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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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!
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Latest News
Empowering the next generation: ANS’s newest book focuses on careers in nuclear energy
A new career guide for the nuclear energy industry is now available: The Nuclear Empowered Workforce by Earnestine Johnson. Drawing on more than 30 years of experience across 16 nuclear facilities, Johnson offers a practical, insightful look into some of the many career paths available in commercial nuclear power. To mark the release, Johnson sat down with Nuclear News for a wide-ranging conversation about her career, her motivation for writing the book, and her advice for the next generation of nuclear professionals.
When Johnson began her career at engineering services company Stone & Webster, she entered a field still reeling from the effects of the Three Mile Island incident in 1979, nearly 15 years earlier. Her hiring cohort was the first group of new engineering graduates the company had brought on since TMI, a reflection of the industry-wide pause in nuclear construction. Her first long-term assignment—at the Millstone site in Waterford, Conn., helping resolve design issues stemming from TMI—marked the beginning of a long and varied career that spanned positions across the country.
Toshiro Sakabe, Yasuyuki Ogino, Keisuke Mukai, Juro Yagi, Mahmoud Bakr
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 80 | Number 5 | July 2024 | Pages 653-665
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2023.2227821
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The glow discharge–type fusion neutron source is a compact system that generates neutrons by inducing a nuclear fusion reaction between ionized-trapped deuterium and/or tritium in the system potential well. This study aims to clarify the relationship between the neutron production rate (NPR) and the deuterium depth distribution on the cathode surface. Four units of nontransparent cathodes fabricated from stainless steel as the electrode’s base material was investigated. Two units were coated with diamond-like carbon (DLC) and titanium, which have different affinities for hydrogen isotopes, and two were uncoated units. The NPR and cathode depth profiles were determined and scanned at different operating conditions for the coated cathodes and then compared to the uncoated ones.
The results revealed that the DLC-coated cathode showed much higher NPR than the other units. The increase in NPR for the system implementing a DLC-coated cathode relative to the uncoated cathode ranged from 4.7 to 10 times. In addition, the depth profile for the nontransparent cathodes showed that the deuterium concentration on/in the DLC-coated surface was more significant by about one order of magnitude than that of the other cathodes. The increase in the NPR can be attributed to the high affinity of the DLC to capture deuterium on a cathode surface. The study suggests that DLC is a promising coating for the electrode in the neutron source at low operating conditions of less than 2 kW. In the meantime, further experimental studies are planned to find more candidate materials with better performance and higher and more stable NPR as a function of time.
