The members of the American Nuclear Society Fusion Energy Division work on a variety of technical problems associated with research and development on fusion. Our interests are quite broad. Technically, we span the range from plasma physics to neutronics and shielding, to nuclear, thermal and mechanical engineering, to environment and safety design and analysis, to remote maintenance. Problems of interest range from support of present physics experiments, to design of next-step experimental facilities, to long-term fusion power plant studies. The FED's members come from the Universities, National Laboratories, Industry, and small businesses.

Fusion is the reaction between isotopes of hydrogen that fuels the Sun and the stars. It offers the benefit of virtually unlimited fuel supply, and the potential for significantly reduced radioactivity material handling concerns by use of low activation structure materials that do not exhibit a high level of long-term radioactive products after neutron irradiation. To get isotopes of hydrogen to fuse into helium and released energy, they must be heated to very high temperatures (100,000,000 °C) to get them to collide with sufficient energy to overcome the Coulomb barrier and fuse together. These hot ions must be held together for a long enough time at high enough pressure to allow enough fusion events to occur to recover the energy needed to heat them and to confine them. The easiest reaction to make work is that between deuterium and tritium. It releases 14 MeV of energy, and a neutron that can be used to breed more tritium from relatively plentiful lithium. This reaction is the present focus of fusion R&D efforts. Additional fusion reactions exist (DD, D³He, p-¹¹B, etc.), and may offer still further environmental benefits, but require still higher temperatures and pressures.

There are two major research and development efforts underway for fusion. These are magnetic confinement fusion, where the hot plasma is held within a "magnetic bottle" at high enough temperature and pressure for a long enough time for fusion to occur, and inertial confinement fusion where a small amount of fusion fuel is symmetrically heated and compressed by intense energy beams, such as lasers, so that fusion conditions of high temperature and pressure are achieved for a brief instant while inertia holds the fuel together. In addition, FED members have interest in non-mainline fusion approaches, including electrostatic confinement and "cold fusion."

Fusion Energy Division members are active in present-day fusion experiments, such as the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor at Princeton University, the DIII-D Tokamak at General Atomics, the NOVA Laser Experiment at LLNL, and the OMEGA Laser Experiment at University of Rochester. Fusion energy research has always enjoyed an unusual degree of international cooperation, perhaps because of the difficulty of the technical problems to be solved, and the benefits to humankind if we are successful. International cooperation is increasing, and a major activity of the world fusion program is the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor project, where an international team from the U.S., European community, Japan, and Russia, with participation by many others, including Canada, is doing engineering design of a major tokamak experimental reactor. ITER could operate in the ~2005-2010 time frame, and produce about 1000 MW of fusion power for long periods of time, demonstrating most of the physics and technologies needed for practical application of fusion. The ANS FED members are very active in the ITER project.

The major activities of the Fusion Energy Division are technical communication, technical recognition, and public information. We sponsor fusion sessions at the Summer ANS meetings, and a Bi-Annual Topical meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy. We co-sponsor the Tri-Annual Topical meeting on Tritium Technology. We strongly support the ANS journal, Fusion Technology. Professional recognition is important to any technical individual. The Fusion Energy Division makes three awards each year to provide technical recognition in the area of fusion. These are the Outstanding Achievement Award, the Outstanding Technical Accomplishment Award, and the Outstanding Student Paper Award. We participate in the ANS Public Information Activities, and try to maintain up-to-date lists of speakers, public information materials, and public information opportunities to match with Fusion Energy Division speakers.

The Fusion Energy Division welcomes all ANS members to participate with us in the technically challenging and professionally rewarding pursuit of fusion energy.