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
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
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|Experimental Reactor Physics
Monday, April 22, 2024|3:30–5:15PM PDT|Franciscan B
Session Chair:
Jesson D. Hutchinson
Alternate Chair:
Catherine Percher (LLNL)
Session Organizer:
Luka Snoj
To access paper attachments, you must be logged in and registered for the meeting.
Register NowLog In
Application of Monte Carlo Solver Solomon to Critical Mass Calculation of Fuel Randomization System
3:30–3:50PM PDT
Tomoaki Watanabe (Japan Atomic Energy Agency), Taro Ueki (Japan Atomic Energy Agency), Kenya Suyama (Japan Atomic Energy Agency)
Paper
Statistical Error Estimation of Autocorrelation Method Using Circular Block Bootstrap Method
3:50–4:10PM PDT
Ryoga Hirota (Nagoya Univ.), Tomohiro Endo (Nagoya Univ.), Akio Yamamoto (Nagoya Univ.), Kenichi Watanabe (Kyushu Univ.), Junichi H. Kaneko (Hokkaido Univ.)
Sensitivities of Configurations with Missing Fuel Rods
4:10–4:30PM PDT
Benjamin Dechenaux (IRSN)
Presentation Slides (Visible to Attendees)
Investigation of Subcriticality Monitoring Method Using Improved Simplest Reactivity Estimator with Bilateral Filter
4:30–4:50PM PDT
Taiyo Moribe (Nagoya Univ.), Tomohiro Endo (Nagoya Univ.), Akio Yamamoto (Nagoya Univ.), Junichi H. Kaneko (Hokkaido Univ.)
Evaluation of Thermal Scattering Law for U3Si2 Using Temperature-Dependent Phonon Density of States
4:50–5:10PM PDT
Junhyoung Gil (NCSU), Ayman I. Hawari (NCSU)
To join the conversation, you must be logged in and registered for the meeting.
