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
Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
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
May 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Proving DRACO will deliver
The United States is now closer than it has been in over five decades to launching the first nuclear thermal rocket into space, thanks to DRACO—the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Orbit.
George H. Miley, Hiromu Momota, Linchun Wu
Nuclear Technology | Volume 166 | Number 3 | June 2009 | Pages 295-300
Technical Note | 2007 Space Nuclear Conference / Miscellaneous | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A8843
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A radical new inertial electrostatic confinement (IEC) fusion concept, the magnetically channeled IEC trap array (MCTA), is studied as a candidate power unit for interplanetary space travel. IEC fusion concepts are widely recognized to be attractive for space power because they are simple and lightweight. However, existing experimental IEC concepts, while very successful for low-level power neutron sources, do not project to high-power space applications because of poor confinement-time scaling and grid heating/losses. The MCTA concept addresses both issues: eliminating the need for a central grid by injecting energetic ions into this unique hybrid configuration and providing improved confinement by connecting a number of traps. Because of the linearly connected geometry and compatibility with an efficient traveling wave direct-energy converter, aneutronic fuels, such as D-3He, can be implemented. Thus, the MCTA concept has the potential to accomplish the demanding requirements of future deep-space propulsion and power by providing a high power-density propulsion system. This promise was amply demonstrated in an earlier, reasonably detailed design study by University of Illinois researchers that used an MCTA to accomplish a fast manned mission to Jupiter.In the present paper, we discuss the basic MCTA concept and examine stability issues that must be resolved to access the feasibility of this concept. Some important supporting data carry over from prior IEC experiments, but a full MCTA configuration has yet to be studied experimentally. If proven feasible, the MCTA development path would involve experiments at progressively higher powers aimed at the ultimate demonstration of a full-scale, several-hundred-MW propulsion unit.