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Division Spotlight
Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
Meeting Spotlight
2025 ANS Annual Conference
June 15–18, 2025
Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott 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
BREAKING NEWS: Trump issues executive orders to overhaul nuclear industry
The Trump administration issued four executive orders today aimed at boosting domestic nuclear deployment ahead of significant growth in projected energy demand in the coming decades.
During a live signing in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump called nuclear “a hot industry,” adding, “It’s a brilliant industry. [But] you’ve got to do it right. It’s become very safe and environmental.”
Christopher M. Perfetti, Bradley T. Rearden
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 182 | Number 3 | March 2016 | Pages 354-368
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE15-13
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The sensitivity and uncertainty analysis tools of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory SCALE nuclear modeling and simulation code system that have been developed over the last decade have proven indispensable for numerous application and design studies for nuclear criticality safety and reactor physics. SCALE contains tools for analyzing the uncertainty in the eigenvalue of critical systems with realistic three-dimensional Monte Carlo simulations but currently can only quantify the uncertainty in important neutronic parameters such as multigroup cross sections, fuel fission rates, activation rates, and neutron fluence rates with one- or two-dimensional models. A more complete understanding of the sources of uncertainty in these design-limiting parameters using high-fidelity models could lead to improvements in process optimization and reactor safety and help inform regulators when setting operational safety margins. A novel approach for calculating eigenvalue sensitivity coefficients, known as the CLUTCH (Contributon-Linked eigenvalue sensitivity/Uncertainty estimation via Track length importance CHaracterization) method, was recently explored as academic research and has been found to accurately and rapidly calculate sensitivity coefficients in criticality safety applications. The work presented here describes an extension of the CLUTCH method, known as the GEneralized Adjoint Responses in Monte Carlo (GEARMC) method, that enables the calculation of sensitivity coefficients and uncertainty analysis for a generalized set of neutronic responses using high-fidelity continuous-energy Monte Carlo calculations. Several criticality safety systems were examined to demonstrate proof of principle for the GEAR-MC method, and GEAR-MC produced response sensitivity coefficients that agreed well with reference direct perturbation sensitivity coefficients.