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
Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
Meeting Spotlight
Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2021)
February 9–11, 2021
Virtual Meeting
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
Jan 2021
Jul 2020
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
February 2021
Nuclear Technology
January 2021
Fusion Science and Technology
November 2020
Latest News
Notes on fusion
The ST25-HTS tokamak.
Governments around the world have been interested in fusion for more than 70 years. Fusion research was largely secret until 1968, when the Soviets unveiled exciting results from their tokamak (a magnetic confinement fusion device with a particular configuration that produces a toroidal plasma). The Soviets realized that tokamaks were not useful as weapons but could produce plasma in the million-degree temperature range to demonstrate Soviet scientific and technical prowess to the world.
Following this breakthrough, government laboratories around the world continued to pursue various methods of confining hot plasma to understand plasma physics under extreme conditions, getting closer and closer to the conditions necessary for fusion energy production. Tokamaks have been by far the most successful configuration. In the 1990s, the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory produced 10 MW of fusion power using deuterium-tritium fusion. A few years later, the Joint European Torus (JET) in the United Kingdom increased that to 16 MW, getting close to breakeven using 24 MW of power to heat the plasma.
The American Nuclear Society provides statements which reflect the Society's perspectives on issues of public interest that involve various aspects of nuclear science and technology. Position statements are prepared by key members whose relevant experience or publications inform the documents and then the documents are reviewed by ANS committees and divisions. The final position statements are approved by the Board of Directors.
Advanced Reactors — ANS-35-2018
Read the Statement
Clearance of Solid Materials from Nuclear Facilities — ANS-50-2008
Creation of an Independent Entity to Manage U.S. Used Nuclear Fuel — ANS-22-2015
Decommissioning of Nuclear Power Reactors — ANS-13-2015
Disposal of Low-Level Radioactive Waste — ANS-11-2017
More:Background Information
Disposition of Surplus Weapons Plutonium — ANS-47-2020
Diversity in the Nuclear Profession — ANS-66-2018
Food Irradiation — ANS-28-2009
Fusion Energy — ANS-12-2016
Health Effects of Low-Level Radiation — ANS-41-2020
More:Background InformationTechnical Brief
Interim Storage of Used or Spent Nuclear Fuel — ANS-76-2017
Licensing of Yucca Mountain as a Geological Repository for Radioactive Wastes — ANS-80-2009
Maintaining a Viable Nuclear Industry Workforce — ANS-29-2006
Nonproliferation — ANS-55-2009
Nuclear Energy's Role in Climate Change Policy — ANS-44-2019
More:Other
Nuclear Engineering Licensure — ANS-61-2003
Nuclear Facility Safety Standards — ANS-24-2006
Nuclear Fuel Recycling — ANS-45-2014
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission — ANS-77-2016
Nuclear Technology's Critical Role In The World's Future Energy Supply — ANS-43-2019
Price-Anderson Act — ANS-54-2019
Reactor Safety — ANS-51-2007
Research and Training Reactors — ANS-53-2011
Risk-Informed and Performance-Based Regulations for Nuclear Power Plants — ANS-46-2017
The Safety of Transporting Radioactive Materials — ANS-18-2017
Small Modular Reactors — ANS-25-2020
Societal Benefits of Radiation — ANS-73-2008
Space Nuclear Power and Propulsion Systems — ANS-40-2009
Stewardship of Nuclear Engineering Education — ANS-21-2007
U.S. Commercial Nuclear Power Plants: A Vital National Asset — ANS-26-2017
U.S. Global Nuclear Leadership Through Export-Driven Engagement — ANS-83-2012
U.S. Radioisotope Supply — ANS-30-2004
The Use of Highly Enriched Uranium for the Production of Medical Isotopes — ANS-72-2005
The Use of Thorium as Nuclear Fuel — ANS-78-2006