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
Isotopes & Radiation
Members are devoted to applying nuclear science and engineering technologies involving isotopes, radiation applications, and associated equipment in scientific research, development, and industrial processes. Their interests lie primarily in education, industrial uses, biology, medicine, and health physics. Division committees include Analytical Applications of Isotopes and Radiation, Biology and Medicine, Radiation Applications, Radiation Sources and Detection, and Thermal Power Sources.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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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June 2024
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Latest News
Proving DRACO will deliver
The United States is now closer than it has been in over five decades to launching the first nuclear thermal rocket into space, thanks to DRACO—the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Orbit.
H. Frewer, W. Keller, R. Pruschek
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 90 | Number 4 | August 1985 | Pages 411-426
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE85-4
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The modular high-temperature reactor (HTR-M) is characterized by the use of standardized reactor, heat transfer, and loop components. One or more primary circuit units make up the nuclear steam-generating system (or heat-generating system) of a HTR-M power plant. The core of the helium-cooled HTR-M consists of a randomly packed bed of spherical fuel elements (pebble bed reactor). The characteristic design of the HTR-M core ensures that permissible core temperatures are not exceeded, even if all cooling systems fail. Today, HTR-M power plants can already be applied in the combined generation of electricity, process steam, and/or district heat. In the near future the HTR-M can be used as a heat source for processing plants in the chemical industry, e.g., for methane cracking, coal gasification and similar chemical processes.