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
Jul 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2026
Nuclear Technology
July 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
The deadline arrives: Checking in on the Reactor Pilot Program
On May 23, 2025, President Trump signed Executive Order 14301, “Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the DOE,” which instructed the Department of Energy to create a Reactor Pilot Program (RPP)—a new system in which companies could pursue DOE authorization to build and test their first-of-a-kind nuclear technologies. EO 14301 set an ambitious goal for that program: three reactors achieving criticality by July 4, 2026.
R. J. Onega, W. R. Becraft, C. A. Kukielka
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 75 | Number 3 | September 1980 | Pages 243-257
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE80-A19056
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Magnetic confinement fusion programs are now entering the design phase for devices that will demonstrate the physics and engineering necessary for fusion reactors. One design area of significance that is receiving increased consideration is that of determining the characterization and potential consequences of plasma disruptions. The thermal energy and the magnetic energy stored in an engineering test facility type plasma will each be ∼200 MJ. A thermal energy of 200 MJ will result in a very high heat flux if deposited on a tokamak wall in a short time. The consequences of such depositions as a function of disruption time, and of the spatial distribution of the plasma as it strikes the wall, are analyzed in this paper.