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.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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
Jul 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
July 2025
Latest News
Hash Hashemian: Visionary leadership
As Dr. Hashem M. “Hash” Hashemian prepares to step into his term as President of the American Nuclear Society, he is clear that he wants to make the most of this unique moment.
A groundswell in public approval of nuclear is finding a home in growing governmental support that is backed by a tailwind of technological innovation. “Now is a good time to be in nuclear,” Hashemian said, as he explained the criticality of this moment and what he hoped to accomplish as president.
W. F. G. van Rooijen, J. L. Kloosterman, T. H. J. J. van der Hagen, H. van Dam
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 157 | Number 2 | October 2007 | Pages 185-199
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE07-A2721
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Generation IV gas-cooled fast reactor (GCFR) is intended to have a closed fuel cycle: During irradiation enough fissile material is produced to allow refueling of the same reactor, adding only fertile material. This is the well-known "zero breeding gain" objective. In this paper a theoretical framework is derived to track compositional changes of the fuel during irradiation, cooldown, and reprocessing, in order to calculate the reactivity of the new fuel compared to the original fuel material. Using first-order perturbation theory, the effect of variations of the initial fuel composition on the reprocessed material and breeding gain can be calculated. The theory is applied to the fuel cycle of a 600 MW(thermal) GCFR. The result is that the change of material composition during cooldown has a nonnegligible effect on the breeding gain. A truly closed fuel cycle can be obtained if the reprocessing efficiency is high enough (<1% loss). If this high efficiency cannot be obtained, adding a small amount of minor actinides (Np, Am, Cm) to the new fuel results in a zero breeding gain. Perturbation theory provides a powerful tool to estimate the effects of changing fuel cycle parameters.