 In 1972, the scope of the group was widened to include plasma sciences, and the group became a Society, its name changing to the Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society.The first issue of the Transactions on Nuclear Science first appeared in 1954, the number of issues rising to four per year in 1956 and bimonthly in 2017.In 2005, the journal was ranked No.3 for impact factor in Nuclear Science & Engineering by Thomson.