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Division Spotlight
Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
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!
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Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
How robust is HALEU from a nonproliferation perspective?
Shikha Prasad
High-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) has emerged as a popular fuel choice for advanced small modular reactors due to its long power production periods before refueling. It is currently being pursued by TerraPower, X-energy, BWX Technologies, Kairos, Oklo, and other reactor companies. HALEU has a uranium-235 enrichment ranging from 5 percent to 20 percent, whereas traditional LWRs use low-enriched uranium fuel enriched up to 5 percent.
HALEU will provide power for longer durations, compared with traditional LWRs. But could it also provide an opportunity for more rapid proliferation, as is speculated in a 2023 National Academy of Sciences report on advanced nuclear reactors (nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/26630/)?
If a nuclear proliferator conspires to divert fresh nuclear fuel for weapons production when it has not been used in a reactor, the effort required in separative work units (SWUs) to enrich U-235 from 5 percent to 90 percent and that required to enrich from 20 percent to 90 percent are both very small, compared with the effort required to enrich U-235 from its natural abundance to the initial 5 percent.
Technical Session|Sponsored by Evolution of Material Properties
Tuesday, December 12, 2023|8:00–9:40AM CST|Galerie 1
Session Chair:
Brian Wirth (University of Tennessee)
Alternate Chair:
Thak Sang Byun (ORNL)
Track Organizers:
Dong Liu (University of Bristol)
Gary Was (Univ. Michigan)
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An Integrated Statistical-Thermodynamic Model for Fission Gas Swelling and Release in Nuclear Fuels
8:00–8:20AM CST
C.K.C. Lieou (Univ. Tennessee, Knoxville), N.A. Capps (ORNL), M.W.D. Cooper (LANL), P.-C.A. Simon (INL), B.D. Wirth (Univ. Tennessee, Knoxville)
Paper
Development of Instrumented Advanced Test Reactor Irradiation Capsule Experiment for In-situ Thermal Conductivity Measurements of High-Density Fuels
8:20–8:40AM CST
C. Downey (INL), K. Jewell (INL), M. Turkmen (INL), D. Chapman (INL), R. Sandbek (INL), J. Watkins (INL), L. Sudderth (INL)
Presentation Slides (Visible to Attendees)
Fractography of High Burnup Spent Nuclear Fuel Rods from Cyclic Bending Fatigue Failure
8:40–9:00AM CST
Yadukrishnan Sasikumar (ORNL), Paul Cantonwine (ORNL), Rose Montgomery (ORNL)
Atomistic-Scale Simulations of Creep in Uranium Oxide Nuclear Fuel
9:00–9:20AM CST
Conor Galvin (LANL), David Andersson (LANL), Ryan T. Sweet (INL), Laurent Capolungo (LANL), Michael W. Cooper (LANL)
Irradiation Enhanced Creep in UO2 from Cluster Dynamics Simulation of Grain Boundaries
9:20–9:40AM CST
W.D. Neilson (LANL), C.O.T. Galvin (LANL), M.W.D. Cooper (LANL), D.A. Andersson (LANL)
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