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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
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!
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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.
Ch. Hellwig, K. Bakker, T. Ozawa, M. Nakamura, F. Ingold, L. Å. Nordström, Y. Kihara
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 153 | Number 3 | July 2006 | Pages 233-244
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE06-A2609
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Particle fuels such as sphere-pac and vipac have been considered as promising fuel systems for fast reactors because of their inherent potential in remote operation, cost reduction, and incineration of minor actinides or low-decontaminated plutonium. The FUJI test addresses the questions of fabrication of mixed-oxide (MOX) particle fuels with high Pu content (20%) and its irradiation behavior during the start-up phase. Four kinds of fuel, i.e., MOX sphere-pac, MOX vipac, MOX pellet, and Np-MOX sphere-pac, have been and will be simultaneously irradiated under identical conditions in the High Flux Reactor in Petten, Netherlands. First results show that the particle fuel undergoes a substantial structure change already at the very beginning of the irradiation when the maximum power is reached. The changes in microstructure, i.e., the formation of a central void and the densification of fuel, decrease the fuel central temperature. Thus, the fast and strong restructuring helps to prevent central fuel melting at high power levels.