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.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
Latest Magazine Issues
Jun 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2026
Nuclear Technology
July 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Launching into tomorrow: NRIC guides new era of research and deployment
In June 2025, the Department of Energy announced the Reactor Pilot Program, an authorization pathway that allowed reactor developers to partner with the DOE to get first-of-a-kind (FOAK) reactors built and tested. Soon after, the DOE rolled out a complementary Fuel Line Pilot Program, which aimed to fast-track fuel projects. In all, 20 projects were accepted into the new programs.
Forrest Shriver, Cole Gentry, Justin Watson
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 195 | Number 6 | June 2021 | Pages 626-647
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2020.1852021
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Traditional light water reactor simulations are usually either high fidelity, requiring hundreds of node-hours, or low fidelity, requiring only seconds to run on a common workstation. In current research, it is desirable to combine the positive aspects of both of these simulation types while minimizing their associated negative costs. Because neural networks have shown significant success when applied to other fields, they could provide a means for combining these two classes of simulation. This paper describes a methodology for designing and training neural networks to predict normalized pin powers and within a reflective two-dimensional pressurized water reactor assembly model. The developed methodology combines computer vision approaches, modular neural network approaches, and hyperparameter optimization methods to intelligently design novel network architectures. This methodology has been used to develop a novel new architecture, LatticeNet, which is capable of predicting pin-resolved powers and at a high level of detail. The results produced by this novel architecture show the successful prediction of the target neutronics parameters under a variety of typical neutronics conditions, and they indicate a potential path forward for neural network–based model development.