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
Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
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
May 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Proving DRACO will deliver
The United States is now closer than it has been in over five decades to launching the first nuclear thermal rocket into space, thanks to DRACO—the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Orbit.
N. J. Peters, K. Kutikkad
Nuclear Technology | Volume 201 | Number 1 | January 2018 | Pages 80-98
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2017.1398582
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The details of robust computational and novel semiempirical methodologies that were developed and tested at the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR) to accurately determine the possibility of a “hot” startup and the estimated critical position (ECP) of the control rods following an unplanned shutdown are presented. The computations, based on a modified coupled MCNP5-ORIGEN2 code system and using ENDF/B-VII.0 and TENDL-2013 nuclear data sets, accurately simulate the MURR core operational histories while predicting the critical rod positions within ±0.001 Δk/k of experimental critical data. In this study, using the coupled MCNP5-ORIGEN2 computations, various core-specific parameters were methodically characterized and were adapted into a semiempirical formulation better suited for practical reactor operations. The predictive capabilities of these novel semiempirical approaches regarding core criticality and ECPs required utilizing, for the first time, the net transient response of the negative reactivity worth for necessary fission product poisons including 135mXe and several others. Calculation-to-experiment deviations in hot-startup criticals and the corresponding control rod positions are shown to be less than ±0.03% Δk/k and ±1% difference in relative rod position, respectively.