  The inner crust of neutron stars consists of nuclei of various shapes
immersed in a neutron gas and stabilized by the Coulomb interaction in the form
of a crystal lattice. The scattering of neutrons on nuclear inhomegeneities
leads to the quantum correction to the total energy of the system. This
correction resembles the Casimir energy and turns out to have a large influence
on the structure of the crust.
