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2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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Chernobyl at 40 years: Looking back at Nuclear News
Sunday, April 26, at 1:23 a.m. local time will mark 40 years since the most severe nuclear accident in history: the meltdown of Unit 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union.
In the ensuing four decades, countless books, documentaries, articles, and conference sessions have examined Chernobyl’s history and impact from various angles. There is a similar abundance of outlooks in the archives of Nuclear News, where hundreds of scientists, advocates, critics, and politicians have shared their thoughts on Chernobyl over the years. Today, we will take a look at some highlights from the pages of NN to see how the story of Chernobyl evolved over the decades.
M. D. Nornberg, M. W. Bongard, M. T. Borchardt, S. J. Diem, B. A. Kujak-Ford, J. A. Goetz, B. T. Lewicki, J. A. Reusch, C. Rodriguez Sanchez, C. E. Schaefer, A. C. Sontag, J. D. Weberski, G. R. Winz
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 82 | Number 1 | January-February 2026 | Pages 45-55
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2025.2457254
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Developing nonsolenoidal plasma initiation techniques for spherical tokamaks in particular, and tokamaks in general, provides an attractive option for designing fusion energy systems without relying on induction from a central solenoid. The Pegasus-III Experiment is a newly upgraded facility dedicated to developing nonsolenoidal tokamak startup through magnetic helicity injection and microwave injection techniques. The main driver of the upgrade is a new toroidal field (TF) coil and power supply to enable startup demonstrations under conditions similar to larger facilities. Operating the TF coil up to 0.6 T requires adding 10 kW of water cooling to the center stack conductors and monitoring the TF bundle temperature and strain during the current pulse. The chilled water system is designed to minimize copper corrosion from low-conductivity water. Strain gauges and thermocouples are mounted at key locations on the TF coil structure. Their measurements agree with electrothermal heat transfer and stain calculations. The new facility has begun experiments at 0.6 T, demonstrating the startup of a tokamak plasma without a central solenoid.