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
Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
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
Vogtle-4 enters commercial operation
GUnit 4 at Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle has entered commercial operation, the company announced today. The new unit can produce enough electricity to power an estimated 500,000 homes and businesses, according to the company.
Chaung Lin, Jiing-Iuan Yang, Kuan-Jan Lin, Zheng-De Wang
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 129 | Number 1 | May 1998 | Pages 61-71
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE98-A1963
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A computer program based on the simple tabu search has been developed to search for pressurized water reactor loading patterns (LPs). The tabu search is a heuristic procedure for solving optimization problems. To save computer time, a design target was defined, which is the value of the nuclear enthalpy rise hot-channel factor FH at each fuel assembly (FA) position for zero xenon concentration and zero exposure condition. When the values of FH of a trial LP satisfy the design target, this LP may meet the design limit at each exposure checkpoint for all rods-out and D-bank half-inserted conditions, which is the design requirement. The objective function was defined to search for an LP whose FH is smaller than the design target, i.e., a feasible LP. An initial LP is properly generated by using the heuristic rules. Then the LP is rearranged by exchanging FAs or rotating the FA, which is carried out by employing the simple tabu search. The heuristic rules were incorporated into the tabu search to generate the candidate moves so that the search was efficient. The program was demonstrated by successfully generating LPs for the Maanshan nuclear power plant in Taiwan.