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
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
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
May 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Zap Energy hits 37-million-degree electron temperatures in compact fusion device
Zap Energy announced April 23 that it has reached 1-3 keV plasma electron temperatures—roughly the equivalent of 11 to 37 million degrees Celsius—using its sheared-flow-stabilized Z-pinch approach to fusion. Reaching temperatures above that of the sun’s core (which is 10 million degrees Celsius temperature) is just one hurdle required before any fusion confinement concept can realistically pursue net gain and fusion energy.
Daniel A. Vega, Taku Watanabe, Susan B. Sinnott, Simon R. Phillpot, James S. Tulenko
Nuclear Technology | Volume 165 | Number 3 | March 2009 | Pages 308-312
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A4103
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A proof-of-principle study is presented in which the results of atomic-level simulations of the thermal expansion and thermal conductivity of UO2 are integrated into the fuel performance code FRAPCON. The beginning-of-life (BOL) thermal conductivity profile of a fuel pellet and the evolution of the pellet expansion over its lifetime are determined. It is found that (a) modifying FRAPCON to accept input from atomistic simulations (or elsewhere, such as new experiments or other calculations) is relatively straightforward, at least for these two properties, and (b) the properties determined from atomistic simulations yield predictions in FRAPCON that are in good agreement for the BOL thermal conductivity, but much less satisfactory for the pellet expansion.