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
Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver 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
Apr 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
May 2025
Latest News
ANS designates Armour Research Foundation Reactor as Nuclear Historic Landmark
The American Nuclear Society presented the Illinois Institute of Technology with a plaque last week to officially designate the Armour Research Foundation Reactor a Nuclear Historic Landmark, following the Society’s decision to confer the status onto the reactor in September 2024.
Anatoly F. Nastoyashchii, Nikita A. Titov, Igor N. Morozov, Ference Glück, Ernst W. Otten
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 48 | Number 1 | July-August 2005 | Pages 743-746
Technical Paper | Tritium Science and Technology - Tritium in Neutrino Physics | doi.org/10.13182/FST05-A1028
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In the paper the ionization state of molecular tritium and electric potentials in a Windowless Gas Tritium Source (WGTS) of tritium -decay experiment KATRIN are considered. The ionization processes in WGTS are sustained by -electrons and so-called "secondary electrons", arising from inelastic and ionization collisions of "primary" -electrons with tritium molecules. As a result in the WGTS tritium gas volume acts as a low-temperature and slightly ionized gas steady state close to quasi neutrality (the Debye length is small in comparison with the setup characteristical sizes). On the basis of an one-dimensional self-consistent model the WGTS plasma steady state is described and the influence of plasma phenomena on neutrino mass measuring process is discussed. It is found that electric potentials in a main plasma volume can not significantly make worse the measurement process. At the same time the nonequilibrium electron spectrum and fast plasma flow at the end of the tube can result in instabilities which are able to spoil slightly the -electron spectrum endpoint. This problem must be carefully investigated further. For more reliable conclusions more detailed consideration is required that will include kinetic effects in the WGTS plasma.