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
Feb 2026
Jul 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
February 2026
Nuclear Technology
January 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Playing the “bad guy” to enhance next-generation safety
Sometimes, cops and robbers is more than just a kid’s game. At the Department of Energy’s national laboratories, researchers are channeling their inner saboteurs to discover vulnerabilities in next-generation nuclear reactors, making sure that they’re as safe as possible before they’re even constructed.
S. Sharafat, N. Ghoniem, B. Williams, J. Babcock
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 47 | Number 4 | May 2005 | Pages 886-890
Technical Paper | Fusion Energy - Fusion Materials | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A799
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Ceramic foam and cellular materials are being used in a wide variety of industries and are finding ever growing number of applications. Over the past decade advances in manufacturing of cellular materials have resulted in ceramics with highly uniform interconnected porosities ranging in size from a few m to several mm. These relatively new ceramic foam materials have a unique set of thermo-mechanical properties, such as excellent thermal shock resistance and high surface to volume ratios. Based on new advances in processing ceramic foams, we suggest the development of ceramic foams or cellular ceramics for solid breeders in fusion reactor blankets. A cellular breeder material has a number of thermo-mechanical advantages over pebble beds, which can enhance blanket performance, improve operational stability, and reduce overall blanket costs.