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 Nonproliferation Policy
The mission of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy Division (NNPD) is to promote the peaceful use of nuclear technology while simultaneously preventing the diversion and misuse of nuclear material and technology through appropriate safeguards and security, and promotion of nuclear nonproliferation policies. To achieve this mission, the objectives of the NNPD are to: Promote policy that discourages the proliferation of nuclear technology and material to inappropriate entities. Provide information to ANS members, the technical community at large, opinion leaders, and decision makers to improve their understanding of nuclear nonproliferation issues. Become a recognized technical resource on nuclear nonproliferation, safeguards, and security issues. Serve as the integration and coordination body for nuclear nonproliferation activities for the ANS. Work cooperatively with other ANS divisions to achieve these objective nonproliferation policies.
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
Argonne’s METL gears up to test more sodium fast reactor components
Argonne National Laboratory has successfully swapped out an aging cold trap in the sodium test loop called METL (Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop), the Department of Energy announced April 23. The upgrade is the first of its kind in the United States in more than 30 years, according to the DOE, and will help test components and operations for the sodium-cooled fast reactors being developed now.
H. Y. Khater, M. E. Sawan, I. N. Sviatoslavsky, L. J. Wittenberg, W. R. Meier
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 21 | Number 3 | May 1992 | Pages 2138-2144
Blanket Shield and Neutronic | doi.org/10.13182/FST92-A30037
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A detailed safety analysis was performed for the inertial confinement fusion reactor OSIRIS. The radioactivity induced in the carbon fabric chamber concrete shield and Flibe breeder is very low allowing for their disposal at the end of the reactor life as Class A low level waste (LLW). The biological dose rate after shutdown behind the reactor biological shield shield is very low (0.11 µmrem/hr) allowing only for hands-on maintenance. A total of 91.5 Ci/day are routinely released to the environment producing an off-site dose to the maximally exposed individual (MEI) of 2.43 mrem/yr at the reactor site boundary. Only a small fraction (0.2%) of the reactor first wall would be mobilized during a loss of coolant/loss of flow accident. The decay heat generated in the concrete shield is very low such that its temperature would only increase by less than 2 degrees during such an accident OSIRIS contains 660 tonnes of liquid Flibe as a coolant and breeder. A severe accident including a breach of the reactor building and chamber is estimated to release less than 0.5 kg of the activated Flibe to the environment. The total whole body (WB) early dose at the reactor site boundary during a pessimistic accident that includes the potential release of radioactive products from the chamber, shield and Flibe coolant would amount to 13.5 mrem. In addition, a 100% release of all the tritium steady state inventory (12.7 gm) inside the reactor building during operation would result in an additional 114 mrem of off-site dose. The total of 128 mrem off-site dose produced from OSIRIS eliminates the need for using N-stamp nuclear grade components in the reactor.