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 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
Latest Magazine Issues
Aug 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
October 2026
Nuclear Technology
September 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
August 2026
Latest News
Second round of Launch Pad selections includes eight newcomers
The National Reactor Innovation Center at Idaho National Laboratory has announced 13 project selections across 12 companies for the Nuclear Energy Launch Pad, a Department of Energy–led program that integrates reactor and fuel facility authorization, testing, and deployment support for private nuclear developers.
The Launch Pad emerged from the Reactor Pilot Program and Fuel Line Pilot Program.
According to INL, projects selected include reactor development and nuclear fuel cycle advancements, including fabrication, enrichment, and conversion technologies.
H. Huang, S. A. Eddinger, M. Schoff
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 55 | Number 4 | May 2009 | Pages 373-379
Technical Paper | Eighteenth Target Fabrication Specialists' Meeting | doi.org/10.13182/FST55-373
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
National Ignition Facility (NIF) specifications have stringent dimensional accuracy requirements on target components. For example, the laser-hole diameter on an ablator capsule must be characterized to ±0.5 m to ensure proper fill tube insertion and to minimize the glue joint mass to <2.5 ng. A charge-coupled-device-based X-ray radiography and tomography instrument (commercially obtained from Xradia, Inc.) is used in target metrology where sample opacity precludes the use of optical techniques; however, the built-in caliper for dimensional measurement cannot provide the required accuracy. The instrument has three main error sources: (a) point projection magnification, (b) imaging lens distortion, and (c) phase contrast shift. The sample feature size dictates the calibration strategy. For large features such as the shell diameter, (a) and (b) dominate the error budget. The built-in caliper is accurate to ~2 to 3%, corresponding to a ±50-m error for a 2000-m NIF capsule. In this work, we developed an X-ray transmission dimension standard and developed (by measuring the standard) a software algorithm to "un-distort" the acquired images without resorting to the standard each time. The latter approach reduces the processing time by 50% and still offers a tenfold accuracy improvement and makes the Xradia instrument useful in screening components. For small features such as laser-drilled holes, (c) is dominant. It shifts the apparent wall boundary to cause a typical ~2-m error for the 5- to 10-m hole diameter. We developed an empirical correction technique with 0.5-m accuracy, in which the dimensions measured by radiography were benchmarked against those by a focused ion beam and scanning electron microscope after sample cleavage. The improved accuracy allows the glue mass to be estimated to 1 ng as required by the NIF specifications.