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Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS 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!
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Latest News
AI at work: Southern Nuclear’s adoption of Copilot agents drives fleet forward
Southern Nuclear is leading the charge in artificial intelligence integration, with employee-developed applications driving efficiencies in maintenance, operations, safety, and performance.
The tools span all roles within the company, with thousands of documented uses throughout the fleet, including improved maintenance efficiency, risk awareness in maintenance activities, and better-informed decision-making. The data-intensive process of preparing for and executing maintenance operations is streamlined by leveraging AI to put the right information at the fingertips for maintenance leaders, planners, schedulers, engineers, and technicians.
Taewoo Tak, Deokjung Lee, T. K. Kim
Nuclear Technology | Volume 183 | Number 3 | September 2013 | Pages 427-435
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-A19430
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A new design of ultralong-cycle fast reactor (UCFR) with power rate of 1000 MW(electric) has been developed based on the strategy of breed and burn. The bottom region of the core with low-enriched uranium plays a role of igniter of the core burning and the upper natural uranium region acts as a blanket for breeding. Fissile materials are bred in the blanket and the active core moves upward at a speed of 5.0 cm/year. Through the core depletion calculation using Monte Carlo code McCARD, it is confirmed that a full-power operation of 60 years without refueling is feasible with respect to nuclear isotopics and criticality. Core performance characteristics have been evaluated in terms of axial/radial power shapes, reactivity feedback coefficients, etc. This design will serve as a base model for further design study of UCFRs using light water reactor spent fuels in the blanket region.