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
Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
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
G7 pledges support for nuclear at Italy meeting
The Group of Seven (G7) recommitted its support for nuclear energy in the countries that opt to use it at a Ministerial Meeting on Climate in Italy last month.
In a statement following the April meeting, the group committed to support multilateral efforts to strengthen the resilience of nuclear supply chains, referencing the goal set by 25 countries during last year’s COP28 climate conference in Dubai to triple global nuclear generating capacity by 2050.
Jeffrey C. King, Leonardo de Holanda Mencarini
Nuclear Technology | Volume 208 | Number 7 | July 2022 | Pages 1137-1148
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2021.2004870
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A low-enriched-uranium (LEU)–fueled space reactor could avoid the security and proliferation concerns inherent with highly enriched uranium (HEU)–fueled space nuclear reactors. Recent LEU-fueled space reactor designs include a moderator to reduce the size and mass of the reactor core. This paper considers shadow shield options for an unmoderated HEU-fueled space reactor and a moderated LEU-fueled space reactor. Both reactors are kilowatt-class reactors, producing 15 kW(thermal) of thermal power over a 5-year operational lifetime. Based on the shielding required to meet established dose limits [a neutron fluence of less than 1014 n/cm2 (1 MeV equivalent in silicon) and a gamma-ray dose of less then 1 Mrad in silicon], the moderated LEU-fueled space reactor will require a thicker shadow shield than the unmoderated HEU-fueled space reactor. The thinner reflector of the moderated LEU-fueled reactor results in more neutrons reaching the shadow shield at higher energies compared to the unmoderated HEU-fueled reactor. The presence of a significant reflector in most space reactor designs means that the core spectrum is relatively unimportant in terms of shadow shield design, as the reflector thickness has a much stronger impact on the neutrons and gamma rays reaching the shadow shield. Based on the results presented in this paper, the mass optimization of moderated LEU-fueled space nuclear reactors should always consider the coupled effects of the core, the reflector, and the shielding.