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
Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
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
May 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
July 2025
Nuclear Technology
June 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
High-temperature plumbing and advanced reactors
The use of nuclear fission power and its role in impacting climate change is hotly debated. Fission advocates argue that short-term solutions would involve the rapid deployment of Gen III+ nuclear reactors, like Vogtle-3 and -4, while long-term climate change impact would rely on the creation and implementation of Gen IV reactors, “inherently safe” reactors that use passive laws of physics and chemistry rather than active controls such as valves and pumps to operate safely. While Gen IV reactors vary in many ways, one thing unites nearly all of them: the use of exotic, high-temperature coolants. These fluids, like molten salts and liquid metals, can enable reactor engineers to design much safer nuclear reactors—ultimately because the boiling point of each fluid is extremely high. Fluids that remain liquid over large temperature ranges can provide good heat transfer through many demanding conditions, all with minimal pressurization. Although the most apparent use for these fluids is advanced fission power, they have the potential to be applied to other power generation sources such as fusion, thermal storage, solar, or high-temperature process heat.1–3
H. Foerstel, K. Lepa, H. Trierweiler.
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 14 | Number 2 | September 1988 | Pages 1203-1208
Tritium Release Experiment | doi.org/10.13182/FST88-A25303
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
After HT is converted to HTO by the soil, the HTO is reemitted back into the atmosphere. Since HTO is more radiotoxic by a factor of 104, this reemission is an important part of the radioecological pathway of HT1. Laboratory studies show that the reemission rate from natural soil cores depends on the turnover in the gas space above the soil surface. Up to a wind velocity of about 4 m s−1, the portion of HTO reemitted hourly increases to about 18 % of the initial amount of the reaction product. However, after the first hour, the observed reemission rate decreases quickly to about 3% h−1. Varying the humidity of an air stream fed at a velocity of about 3 m s−1 into the reaction chamber, had no influence on the reemission rate. For the Canadian release study, small soil samples were exposed to the plume and afterwards to the air. Then, at certain intervals following the release, the soil containers were sealed with gastight lids. The remnant HTO activity was then determined by azeotropic distillation. The reemission rate, determined by this procedure, was about 3% h−1 during the day. During the night, no HTO loss was observed, possibly due to dew formation.