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.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
Mar 2026
Jan 2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
April 2026
Nuclear Technology
February 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Going Nuclear: Notes from the officially unofficial book tour
I work in the analytical labs at one of Europe’s oldest and largest nuclear sites: Sellafield, in northwestern England. I spend my days at the fume hood front, pipette in one hand and radiation probe in the other (and dosimeter pinned to my chest, of course). Outside the lab, I have a second job: I moonlight as a writer and public speaker. My new popular science book—Going Nuclear: How the Atom Will Save the World—came out last summer, and it feels like my life has been running at full power ever since.
Yigal Ronen, Samuel Carmona
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 74 | Number 2 | May 1980 | Pages 84-94
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE80-A19625
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Water breeder reactors based on thermal water reactors have the advantages of a well-proven technology, a wide operational experience, and an acceptable safety status, the latter from using water as a coolant and having a negative void coefficient. Water breeder reactors are now in operation for the 232Th-233U cycle and are being designed for the 238U-Pu cycle. This paper proposes a water breeder system in which two reactors operate in symbiosis, one using 238U-233U as fuel and producing plutonium, and the other using 232Th-Pu as fuel and producing 233U. Thus, each reactor feeds the other. From the breeding point of view, the combined system has an advantage over the separate 238U-Pu and 233Th-233U cycles.