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
2021 Student Conference
April 8–10, 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
Feb 2021
Jul 2020
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
March 2021
Nuclear Technology
February 2021
Fusion Science and Technology
January 2021
Latest News
Researchers report fastest purification of astatine-211 needed for targeted cancer therapy
Astatine-211 recovery from bismuth metal using a chromatography system. Unlike bismuth, astatine-211 forms chemical bonds with ketones.
In a recent study, Texas A&M University researchers have described a new process to purify astatine-211, a promising radioactive isotope for targeted cancer treatment. Unlike other elaborate purification methods, their technique can extract astatine-211 from bismuth in minutes rather than hours, which can greatly reduce the time between production and delivery to the patient.
“Astatine-211 is currently under evaluation as a cancer therapeutic in clinical trials. But the problem is that the supply chain for this element is very limited because only a few places worldwide can make it,” said Jonathan Burns, research scientist in the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station’s Nuclear Engineering and Science Center. “Texas A&M University is one of a handful of places in the world that can make astatine-211, and we have delineated a rapid astatine-211 separation process that increases the usable quantity of this isotope for research and therapeutic purposes.”
The researchers added that this separation method will bring Texas A&M one step closer to being able to provide astatine-211 for distribution through the Department of Energy’s Isotope Program’s National Isotope Development Center as part of the University Isotope Network.
Details on the chemical reaction to purify astatine-211 are in the journal Separation and Purification Technology.
Fuyumi Ito, Keiji Nagai, Mitsuo Nakai, Takayoshi Norimatsu
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 49 | Number 4 | May 2006 | Pages 663-668
Technical Paper | Target Fabrication | dx.doi.org/10.13182/FST06-A1183
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
We studied the gelation of an RF foam shell using a phase-transfer catalyst and density-match non-volatile silicon oil. A phase-transfe catalyst circumvent the problem of density-mismatch and achieve gelation at room temperature, by which the catalyst is contained in the outer oil (Oo) phase, and is then gradually transferred into the RF droplets. For the Oo phase, we used a nonvolatile silicon oil as a non-hazardous material instead of a toxic (mineral oil)/carbontetrachloride.Vigorous agitation conditions were optimized based on three experiments. An emulsion was produced using a droplet generator, and was injected into a drum containg a mixture of 0.39% acetic acid and silicon oil. The drum was rotated and its speed were increased to 95 rpm within 15 minutes. Five minutes later, the rotation speed was increased to 120 rpm (maximum rotation speed), which was maintained for 1 minute, there after reduced to 95 rpm for 39 minutes.