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
2026 Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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
Dec 2025
Jul 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
January 2026
Nuclear Technology
December 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
November 2025
Latest News
Flamanville-3 reaches full power
France’s state-owned electric utility EDF has announced that Flamanville-3—the country’s first EPR—reached full nuclear thermal power for the first time, generating 1,669 megawatts of gross electrical power. This major milestone is significant in terms of both this project and France’s broader nuclear sector.
Steven J. Stanley, Kat Lennox, Alex Jenkins
Nuclear Technology | Volume 183 | Number 2 | August 2013 | Pages 260-269
Technical Paper | Radiation Measurements and General Instrumentation | doi.org/10.13182/NT12-141
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The RadBall is a 140-mm (5.5-in.)-diam deployable, passive, nonelectrical gamma hot-spot imaging device that offers a 360-deg view of the deployment area. The device is particularly useful in instances where the radiation fields inside a nuclear facility are unknown, but a suitable decommissioning strategy is required to be planned. The original version of the technology had a number of drawbacks including a relative insensitivity to radiation (at least 3 Gy required), which led to long deployment times, as well as a narrow target dose range (3 to 8 Gy), which meant that the user required prior knowledge of the radiation fields in which the device was to be deployed. The United Kingdom's National Nuclear Laboratory has developed the technology to overcome both of these issues. The developments associated with the new technology are described here, as are some recent tests undertaken at the Sellafield facility in the United Kingdom. The work has resulted in a significant improvement in sensitivity - 150 times - as well as greatly widened the target dose range to between 20 mGy and 50 Gy. The new version of the technology therefore has a much-improved applicability compared to the original technology.