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
Decommissioning & Environmental Sciences
The mission of the Decommissioning and Environmental Sciences (DES) Division is to promote the development and use of those skills and technologies associated with the use of nuclear energy and the optimal management and stewardship of the environment, sustainable development, decommissioning, remediation, reutilization, and long-term surveillance and maintenance of nuclear-related installations, and sites. The target audience for this effort is the membership of the Division, the Society, and the public at large.
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|Methods
Wednesday, April 24, 2024|10:15AM–12:00PM PDT|Franciscan C
Session Chair:
Majdi I. Radaideh (Univ. of Michigan)
Alternate Chair:
Carlo Fiorina (Texas A&M Uni)
To access paper attachments, you must be logged in and registered for the meeting.
Register NowLog In
State Estimation and Control in Digital Twins for TRIGA Research Reactors
10:15–10:35AM PDT
John Ross (Univ. Texas, Austin), Ben Collins (Univ. Texas, Austin), Kevin Clarno (Univ. Texas, Austin)
Paper
Demonstration of Microreactor Reactivity Control with Reinforcement Learning
10:35–10:55AM PDT
Majdi I. Radaideh (Univ. Michigan), Dean Price (Univ. Michigan), Kamal Abdulraheem (Univ. Michigan), Moutaz Elias (Lam Research)
Machine Learning Prediction of Pebble History in Pebble Bed Reactors
10:55–11:15AM PDT
Ian Kolaja (Univ. California, Berkeley), Tatiana Siaraferas (Univ. California, Berkeley), Yves Robert (Univ. California, Berkeley), Jaewon Lee (Univ. California, Berkeley), Massimiliano Fratoni (Univ. California, Berkeley)
C3-LPO: A Machine Learning Based Surrogate Model for Reactor Design Evaluation and Optimization
11:15–11:35AM PDT
Kingsley Ogujiuba (NCSU), Jake Mikouchi-Lopez (NCSU), Gregory Delipei (NCSU), Jason Hou (NCSU)
Generative AI Tools in the Nuclear Engineering Community: A Survey-Based Evaluation of the Current Adoption and Impacts
11:35–11:55AM PDT
Oskari Pakari (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne), Alessandro Scolaro (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne), Carlo Fiorina (TAMU)
To join the conversation, you must be logged in and registered for the meeting.
