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
Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
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!
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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.
Rodolfo Vaghetto, Yassin A. Hassan
Nuclear Technology | Volume 187 | Number 3 | September 2014 | Pages 282-293
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-130
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Very High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor (VHTR) is one of the next-generation nuclear reactors designed to achieve high temperatures to support industrial applications and power generation. Because of the high temperature reached during normal operation, new safety features were added to its design. The reactor cavity cooling system (RCCS) is a passive safety system that will be incorporated in the VTHR. The system was designed to remove the heat from the reactor cavity and maintain the temperature of structures and concrete walls under desired limits during normal operation (steady state) and accident scenarios. A small-scale (1:23) water-cooled experimental facility was scaled, designed, and constructed in order to study the thermal-hydraulic phenomena taking place in the RCCS during steady-state and transient conditions. The facility represents a portion of the reactor vessel with nine stainless steel coolant risers and utilizes water as coolant. The facility was equipped with instrumentation to measure temperatures and flow rates. A steady-state experimental run was conducted to study the behavior of the coolant under this condition. The experimental results obtained confirmed the capabilities of the system in removing the heat from the cavity and helped in identifying phenomena that may occur in this type of passive system.