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
Mathematics & Computation
Division members promote the advancement of mathematical and computational methods for solving problems arising in all disciplines encompassed by the Society. They place particular emphasis on numerical techniques for efficient computer applications to aid in the dissemination, integration, and proper use of computer codes, including preparation of computational benchmark and development of standards for computing practices, and to encourage the development on new computer codes and broaden their use.
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
Apr 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2024
Nuclear Technology
May 2024
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Commercial nuclear innovation "new space" age
In early 2006, a start-up company launched a small rocket from a tiny island in the Pacific. It exploded, showering the island with debris. A year later, a second launch attempt sent a rocket to space but failed to make orbit, burning up in the atmosphere. Another year brought a third attempt—and a third failure. The following month, in September 2008, the company used the last of its funds to launch a fourth rocket. It reached orbit, making history as the first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to do so.
L. A. El-Guebaly, ARIES Team, and FNSF Team
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 74 | Number 4 | November 2018 | Pages 340-369
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2018.1494946
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In recent decades, fusion energy for electricity has become an international issue with worldwide interest in several magnetic fusion concepts offering the most promising energy source for this century. From existing experiments to power plants, several next-step facilities (NSFs) must be built to bridge the large gaps in fusion science and nuclear technology. During the course of fusion studies, all power plants and NSFs require an integral nuclear assessment to identify the nuclear parameters and address key issues related to tritium breeding ratio (TBR), blanket design, selection of low-activation materials, radial/vertical build optimization and definition, magnet protection, shielding, activation, and survivability of structural materials in 14-MeV neutron environment. This paper presents our design philosophy, nuclear assessment approach, and recent research results for ARIES conceptual tokamak, spherical tokamak, and stellarator power plants as well as NSFs. Some features of the nuclear activities [such as tritium breeding requirement (overall TBR = 1.05), blanket concept, and radwaste issues] remained fixed between the various designs, while others [such as service lifetime (20 to 200 displacements per atom) and shielding requirements] were subject to change to meet the specific design needs. Emerging challenges and lessons learned from nuclear assessments performed during recent decades are highlighted throughout the paper. In particular, the cost implication of uncertainties in the TBR prediction and the large amount of low-level waste generation are important challenges facing the fusion community and should be addressed by interdisciplinary research programs.