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Division Spotlight
Young Members Group
The Young Members Group works to encourage and enable all young professional members to be actively involved in the efforts and endeavors of the Society at all levels (Professional Divisions, ANS Governance, Local Sections, etc.) as they transition from the role of a student to the role of a professional. It sponsors non-technical workshops and meetings that provide professional development and networking opportunities for young professionals, collaborates with other Divisions and Groups in developing technical and non-technical content for topical and national meetings, encourages its members to participate in the activities of the Groups and Divisions that are closely related to their professional interests as well as in their local sections, introduces young members to the rules and governance structure of the Society, and nominates young professionals for awards and leadership opportunities available to members.
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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May 2024
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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|Reactor Design and Analysis
Wednesday, April 24, 2024|1:30–3:15PM PDT|Franciscan A
Session Chair:
Mehdi Asgari (ORNL)
Alternate Chair:
Joel Rhodes (Studsvik Scandpower)
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Loading Pattern Optimization for LWRs Using Monte Carlo Tree Search
1:30–1:50PM PDT
Rikuto Kasama (Nagoya Univ.), Akio Yamamoto (Nagoya Univ.), Tomohiro Endo (Nagoya Univ.)
Paper
Scalarized Multiobjective Fuel Loading Optimization of Extended-Cycle NuScale Power Module with Evolutionary Algorithms
1:50–2:10PM PDT
Thomas Jayasankar (Univ. Michigan), Dean Price (Univ. Michigan), Majdi I. Radaideh (Univ. Michigan), Brendan Kochunas (Univ. Michigan)
Learning Nuclear Fuel Management, Case Study: Design of a Two-Year Equilibrium Cycle of a BWRX-300-like Small Modular Reactor
2:10–2:30PM PDT
Arturo Jiménez-Facio (Univ. Nacional Autónoma de México), Juan-Luis Francois (Univ. Nacional Autónoma de México)
Stochastic Optimization to Find Reference Core Configuration for Refueling Simulations of Waste-Burning Stable Salt Reactor
2:30–2:50PM PDT
Seungug Jae (Univ. Michigan), Won Sik Yang (Univ. Michigan), Thanh Hua (ANL), Yan Cao (ANL), Tom Taylor (Moltex Energy), Luke Godfrey (Moltex Energy)
First Results of Uranium Nitride Fuel Characterization Using Accelerated Fuel Qualification Process
2:50–3:10PM PDT
A. Levinsky (LANL), Z. Miller (LANL), M. Fratoni (Univ. California, Berkeley), T. Matthews (LANL), G.T. Craven (LANL), M.W.D. Cooper (LANL), V. Mehta (LANL), D.A. Andersson (LANL), J.T. Rizk (LANL)
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