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 Nonproliferation Policy
The mission of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy Division (NNPD) is to promote the peaceful use of nuclear technology while simultaneously preventing the diversion and misuse of nuclear material and technology through appropriate safeguards and security, and promotion of nuclear nonproliferation policies. To achieve this mission, the objectives of the NNPD are to: Promote policy that discourages the proliferation of nuclear technology and material to inappropriate entities. Provide information to ANS members, the technical community at large, opinion leaders, and decision makers to improve their understanding of nuclear nonproliferation issues. Become a recognized technical resource on nuclear nonproliferation, safeguards, and security issues. Serve as the integration and coordination body for nuclear nonproliferation activities for the ANS. Work cooperatively with other ANS divisions to achieve these objective nonproliferation policies.
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
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|Reactor Design and Analysis
Tuesday, April 23, 2024|3:30–5:15PM PDT|Franciscan A
Session Chair:
Germina Ilas
Alternate Chair:
David Chandler (ORNL)
To access paper attachments, you must be logged in and registered for the meeting.
Register NowLog In
Implementation of a Novel ERANOS Procedure for the Adjoint Power Evaluation in Coupled Depletion Problems
3:30–3:50PM PDT
Matteo Stanzani (Univ. Bologna), Donato Maurizio Castelluccio (ENEA), Francesco Lodi (ENEA), Vincenzo Giuseppe Peluso (ENEA), Giacomo Grasso (ENEA), Marco Sumini (Univ. Bologna)
Paper
Reactivity Decrease by Assembling Fuel Assemblies in a Heavy Water-Cooled Reactor
3:50–4:10PM PDT
Tomoatsu Shinohara (Tokyo City Univ.), Naoyuki Takaki (Tokyo City Univ.)
Fuel Cycle Analysis of Wielenga Innovation Static Salt Reactor (WISSR)
4:10–4:30PM PDT
Puran Deng (Univ. Michigan), Won Sik Yang (Univ. Michigan), Thomas Wielenga (Wielenga Innovation Foundation)
Multiphysics Analysis of a Minor Actinide Burning Molten Salt Reactor
4:30–4:50PM PDT
J. Eickman (Univ. Wisconsin, Madison), M. Nyberg (Univ. Wisconsin, Madison), U. Baker (Univ. Wisconsin, Madison), B. Lindley (Univ. Wisconsin, Madison)
Dynamics and Stability Analysis Study of a Thermal Molten Salt Reactor
4:50–5:10PM PDT
Thabit Abuqudaira (TAMU), Ümran Üzen (TAMU), Dahvien Dean (TAMU), Pavel Tsvetkov (TAMU), Piyush Sabharwall (INL)
To join the conversation, you must be logged in and registered for the meeting.
