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.
Division Spotlight
Materials Science & Technology
The objectives of MSTD are: promote the advancement of materials science in Nuclear Science Technology; support the multidisciplines which constitute it; encourage research by providing a forum for the presentation, exchange, and documentation of relevant information; promote the interaction and communication among its members; and recognize and reward its members for significant contributions to the field of materials science in nuclear technology.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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
Apr 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Zap Energy hits 37-million-degree electron temperatures in compact fusion device
Zap Energy announced April 23 that it has reached 1-3 keV plasma electron temperatures—roughly the equivalent of 11 to 37 million degrees Celsius—using its sheared-flow-stabilized Z-pinch approach to fusion. Reaching temperatures above that of the sun’s core (which is 10 million degrees Celsius temperature) is just one hurdle required before any fusion confinement concept can realistically pursue net gain and fusion energy.
N. B. Morley, S. Malang, I. Kirillov
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 47 | Number 3 | April 2005 | Pages 488-501
Technical Paper | Fusion Energy - First Wall, Blanket, and Shield | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A733
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper provides a description of the most promising liquid breeder blankets currently proposed for testing in ITER. The critical MHD issues for selfcooled and dual coolant LM systems are the MHD pressure drop and flow distribution with ideal and imperfect insulator barriers/coatings, ideal and imperfect flow channel inserts, and complex geometry flow elements like expansions, contraction, manifolds, etc. Separately cooled LM systems still must circulate the LM for tritium removal, and similar MHD issues may limit flow velocity and influence tritium permeation due to creation of stagnant regions and other nonideal flow distribution effects. Molten salt breeder/coolants have significantly reduced electrical conductivity as compared to LMs, and MHD pressure drop is not considered a serious issue. However, MS also has much lower thermal conductivity, and the heat transfer to/from the structure depends on turbulent convection. The degradation of convective heat transfer by MHD turbulence modification/suppression is of great interest for both selfcooled MS systems where first wall cooling may need to be enhanced, and dual coolant MS systems where heat transfer from the hot breeder to the cooler wall needs to be suppressed. These issues are discussed in detail and development plans specifically for the dualcoolant PbLi concept, up to and including integrated testing in ITER, are presented.