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 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
Mar 2026
Jan 2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
April 2026
Nuclear Technology
February 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Going Nuclear: Notes from the officially unofficial book tour
I work in the analytical labs at one of Europe’s oldest and largest nuclear sites: Sellafield, in northwestern England. I spend my days at the fume hood front, pipette in one hand and radiation probe in the other (and dosimeter pinned to my chest, of course). Outside the lab, I have a second job: I moonlight as a writer and public speaker. My new popular science book—Going Nuclear: How the Atom Will Save the World—came out last summer, and it feels like my life has been running at full power ever since.
S. W. Haan, D. A. Callahan, M. J. Edwards, B. A. Hammel, D. D. Ho, O. S. Jones, J. D. Lindl, B. J. MacGowan, M. M. Marinak, D. H. Munro, S. M. Pollaine, J. D. Salmonson, B. K. Spears, L. J. Suter
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 55 | Number 3 | April 2009 | Pages 227-232
Technical Paper | Eighteenth Target Fabrication Specialists' Meeting | doi.org/10.13182/FST08-3501
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Targets intended to produce ignition on the National Ignition Facility are being simulated, and the simulations are used to set specifications for target fabrication. Recent design work has focused on refining designs that use 1.3 MJ of laser energy, with an ablator of Be(Cu) or CH(Ge). The mainline hohlraum design now has a He-H gas fill and a wall of U-Au layers. The emphasis in this paper is on changes in the requirements over the last year. Complete tables of specifications are regularly updated for all of the targets. All the specifications are rolled together into an error budget indicating adequate margin for ignition with all of the designs.