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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
2025 ANS Annual Conference
June 15–18, 2025
Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott Downtown
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
Jun 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
July 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Smarter waste strategies: Helping deliver on the promise of advanced nuclear
At COP28, held in Dubai in 2023, a clear consensus emerged: Nuclear energy must be a cornerstone of the global clean energy transition. With electricity demand projected to soar as we decarbonize not just power but also industry, transport, and heat, the case for new nuclear is compelling. More than 20 countries committed to tripling global nuclear capacity by 2050. In the United States alone, the Department of Energy forecasts that the country’s current nuclear capacity could more than triple, adding 200 GW of new nuclear to the existing 95 GW by mid-century.
Nuclear and Emerging Technologies for Space (NETS-2024) Plenary SPeaker
Guest ScientistLos Alamos National Laboratory
US Air Force Nuclear Research Officer (retired)
Richard (Dick) Malenfant joined the critical experiments facility at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in January 1961 following a tour of active duty in the US Air Force as a nuclear research officer. He retired from full-time employment in 1996 and continues his association with the laboratory as a Guest Scientist. His special interests include the history of the Manhattan Project, nuclear propulsion, criticality safety, and radiation protection and shielding. Perhaps no program better illustrates the idiom that indicates the importance of paying attention to the smallest aspects of a task than the application of nuclear energy to rocket propulsion. Even now, after 65 years of association with programs such as Kiwi, Rover, Phoebus, Dumbo, and NRX; he is in awe of the small aspects of the nuclear propulsion programs that had to be overcome. Radiation heating rates that would melt tungsten, pumping 350 pounds of liquid hydrogen per second at 1/14th of the density of water, and the reaction of hot hydrogen and graphite to produce methane are illustrative of the small aspects of the problems that are often forgotten and will discuss them further.
Last modified November 6, 2023, 1:06pm MST
