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Division Spotlight
Decommissioning & Environmental Sciences
The mission of the Decommissioning and Environmental Sciences (DES) Division is to promote the development and use of those skills and technologies associated with the use of nuclear energy and the optimal management and stewardship of the environment, sustainable development, decommissioning, remediation, reutilization, and long-term surveillance and maintenance of nuclear-related installations, and sites. The target audience for this effort is the membership of the Division, the Society, and the public at large.
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.”
Rei Kimura, Satoshi Wada
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 193 | Number 9 | September 2019 | Pages 1013-1022
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2019.1576454
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A small modular reactor (SMR) is a promising candidate for future nuclear energy; therefore, many organizations are developing SMRs. Some SMRs have a power output higher than 100 MW(electric). This paper, however, describes a much smaller reactor of less than 10-MW(electric) power output: a microreactor. The microreactor shares the same advantages as SMRs, i.e., passive safety, portability, and maintainability. This paper studies a calcium hydride (CaH2) heat pipe–cooled reactor in which heat pipes and CaH2 accomplish passive removal of generated heat, fuel inventory reduction, high-temperature operation, and prevention of a loss-of-coolant accident. The CaH2 allows operation at a core temperature of 800°C, which improves the efficiency of the reactor system. In the case of moderator function loss, hydrogen dissociation may occur at the higher temperature; however, negative temperature reactivity of the hydride-moderated core prevents reactor runaway. The negative temperature reactivity is realized by the poison nuclides 113Cd and 151Eu, which have a capture resonance peak at thermal energies in high-temperature operation. It was confirmed that the proposed method is capable of controlling the reactor over the whole burnup period.