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
Mathematics & Computation
Division members promote the advancement of mathematical and computational methods for solving problems arising in all disciplines encompassed by the Society. They place particular emphasis on numerical techniques for efficient computer applications to aid in the dissemination, integration, and proper use of computer codes, including preparation of computational benchmark and development of standards for computing practices, and to encourage the development on new computer codes and broaden their use.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Apr 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
May 2025
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.
D. F. Hollenbach
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 179 | Number 3 | March 2015 | Pages 342-351
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE13-46
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
More than 50 years ago it was postulated that a naturally occurring nuclear reactor was possible if it started 2 billion years ago. The subsequent discovery of the natural reactor at Oklo confirmed that it is possible for a nuclear fission reactor to naturally form and cycle on and off over extended periods of time. The hypothesis of a naturally occurring reactor was extended to include the possibility of significant quantities of uranium aggregating inside the molten core of Earth due to gravity during its formation. When sufficient quantities of uranium accumulate, a self-sustaining fission reactor could form, which would fluctuate in power as uranium fissions and fission products are produced. Lighter elements would migrate out of the reactor region, and heavier elements would coalesce due to gravity. In this technical note, SCALE, a state-of-the-art nuclear engineering computer code system developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, was used to investigate this hypothesis. The analysis indicates that the overall operational parameters of a postulated nuclear fission reactor located in the inner core of Earth must fall within a relatively narrow band in order to still be operating today. If the overall power level were too low, the reactor would not breed sufficient fissile material, and the average enrichment would drop below the level required to form a self-sustained fast reactor. If the power level were too high, the reactor would have burned itself out well before the present day. The objective of this technical note is to provide calculations that support an existing geo-reactor and the operating parameters that would govern a deep-Earth reactor and allow it to still be operating today, 4.5 billion years after Earth was formed. To help bound the possible power range, a simplified, one-dimensional, homogeneous, deep-Earth reactor having a steady-state fission power is simulated over geologic time. Power levels and start times are varied. The simulations show that if the reactor were still operating today, it would have an overall lifetime average operating fission power of <3 TW. Analyses show that both instantaneous and cumulative 3He/4He ratios are a function of fission power, 235U/238U ratio, total uranium mass, and geo-reactor starting time. The calculated 3He/4He ratios are consistent with those observed in nature.