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
Materials in Nuclear Energy Systems (MiNES 2023)
December 10–14, 2023
New Orleans, LA|New Orleans Marriott
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!
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Nuclear Science and Engineering
December 2023
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
November 2023
Latest News
Argonne assists advanced reactor development with award-winning safety software
The development of modern nuclear reactor technologies relies heavily on complex software codes and computer simulations to support the design, construction, and testing of physical hardware systems. These tools allow for rigorous testing of theory and thorough verification of design under various use or transient power scenarios.
H. G. Reynolds, M. E. Schoff, M. P. Farrell, M. Gatu Johnson, R. M. Bionta, J. A. Frenje
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 70 | Number 2 | August-September 2016 | Pages 365-371
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST15-235
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The magnetic recoil spectrometer uses a deuterated polyethylene polymer (CD2) foil to measure neutron yield in inertial confinement fusion experiments. Higher neutron yields in recent experiments have resulted in primary signal saturation in the detector CR-39 foils, necessitating the fabrication of thinner CD2 foils than established methods could provide. A novel method of fabricating deuterated polymer foils is described. The resulting foils are thinner, smoother, and more uniform in thickness than the foils produced by previous methods. These new foils have successfully been deployed at the National Ignition Facility, enabling higher neutron yield measurements than previous foils, with no primary signal saturation.