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
Nuclear Criticality Safety
NCSD provides communication among nuclear criticality safety professionals through the development of standards, the evolution of training methods and materials, the presentation of technical data and procedures, and the creation of specialty publications. In these ways, the division furthers the exchange of technical information on nuclear criticality safety with the ultimate goal of promoting the safe handling of fissionable materials outside reactors.
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
Commercial nuclear innovation "new space" age
In early 2006, a start-up company launched a small rocket from a tiny island in the Pacific. It exploded, showering the island with debris. A year later, a second launch attempt sent a rocket to space but failed to make orbit, burning up in the atmosphere. Another year brought a third attempt—and a third failure. The following month, in September 2008, the company used the last of its funds to launch a fourth rocket. It reached orbit, making history as the first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to do so.
E. A. Schneider, U. B. Phathanapirom, R. Eggert, E. Segal
Nuclear Technology | Volume 183 | Number 2 | August 2013 | Pages 160-177
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-A18109
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A market-clearing model of the uranium and enrichment industries through 2030 is presented. Built around thorough databases of primary and secondary uranium supplies as well as enrichment facilities, the model derives market-clearing conditions by locating the intersections between the annual supply-and-demand curves for uranium and enrichment services. Considering the effects of secondary supplies including highly enriched and natural uranium inventories along with depleted uranium enrichment, the model solves embedded optimization problems to account for trade-offs between uranium and enrichment requirements. The model can inform policy decisions tied to uranium inventory management and sale and market effects of purchase and disbursement from a uranium bank. This paper documents the methodologies behind the model, describes a stochastic implementation to propagate uncertainties, and contrasts its forecasts to static projections. Further, it is applied to an illustrative reference case featuring moderate (2.6%/yr) demand growth for reactor fuel. The model predicts near-level uranium prices with declining separative work unit prices and enrichment tails assays through the mid-2020s. This behavior is largely driven by the coming online of several new centrifuge enrichment plants and capacity expansions at others, which encourages more aggressive tails assays while suppressing uranium requirements.