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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.
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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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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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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.
Hoai Nam Tran, Yasuyoshi Kato, Yasushi Muto
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 158 | Number 3 | March 2008 | Pages 264-271
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE08-A2752
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A burnable poison (BP) loading principle has been proposed for once-through-then-out refueling of a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) core with pebble fuel. The principle holds that an axial core power peaking factor can be minimized when k of the fuel pebbles is kept constant during their axial movement from the top to the bottom of the core by adding BP. This principle has been confirmed numerically using B4C with 10B enrichment of 90% and Gd2O3 with natural content as BP. Spherical particles of B4C and Gd2O3 are distributed uniformly in the fuel pebble. The respective optimal radius and number of BP particles are 90 m and 1650 for B4C and 950 m and 16 for Gd2O3. Through addition of B4C and Gd2O3, the power peaking factors are reduced from 4.4 to 1.61 and 1.64, respectively. Burnup reactivity swings are reduced from 38% to about 2% in both BP loadings. Because of reduction of the power peaking factors, the maximum fuel temperatures are respectively lower than the maximum permissible values of 1250 and 1600°C for normal operation and depressurization accident.