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 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
June 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Findings of the ANS Executive Order Expert Advisory Group
On May 23, President Donald Trump signed four Executive Orders (EOs) designed to “usher in a nuclear energy renaissance” by building on federal policies and programs and directing efficiencies in the licensing, siting, development, and deployment of advanced reactor technologies.
In order to evaluate the specific proposals contained in the EOs, a group of experts was convened from various sectors of the U.S. nuclear technology enterprise, under the auspices of the ANS External Affairs Committee, to compare the EOs against existing ANS board-approved Position Statements and to offer constructive input for subsequent implementation by the Trump administration.
The group’s findings and feedback, which were delivered by ANS CEO Craig Piercy to ANS President Lisa Marshall and the Board of Directors, are listed below, grouped by individual EO.
Workshop
Thursday, April 8, 2021|11:45AM–1:00PM EDT
Session Chair:
Mihai A. Diaconeasa
Alternate Chair:
Arjun Earthperson (NC State Univ.)
Session Organizer:
Edward Chen (NC State Univ.)
Track Organizer:
Session Producers:
Alp Tezbasaran (NCSU)
How safe is safe enough? Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA), also called Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA), has been very effective in supporting better decisions on how to manage safety by making the risks involved, the contributors, and the options for controlling the risk transparent; and, quantifying the uncertainties, the primary contributor to rare event risk. Moreover, a new generation of methodologies, often referred to as Dynamic PRA (DPRA) or simulation-based PRA, is starting to receive attention for nuclear reactor PRA. These methodologies explicitly account for the time element in the probabilistic system evolution, quantify the effects of phenomenological variability and uncertainties, and are driven by plant analysis tools (e.g., RELAP, MAAP5) to model possible dependencies among failure events that may arise from hardware/software/human interactions. They have shown great promise in reducing user-to-user analysis variability, modeling passive safety systems, aging effects, and human performance. This workshop will cover the principles of PRA, hands-on examples, as well as brief reviews of recent developments in simulation-based PRA methodologies.
To access the session recording, you must be logged in and registered for the meeting.
Register NowLog In
To access session resources, you must be logged in and registered for the meeting.
To join the conversation, you must be logged in and registered for the meeting.