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Division Spotlight
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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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Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2025
Nuclear Technology
July 2025
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Latest News
Nuclear fuel cycle reimagined: Powering the next frontiers from nuclear waste
In the fall of 2023, a small Zeno Power team accomplished a major feat: they demonstrated the first strontium-90 heat source in decades—and the first-ever by a commercial company.
Zeno Power worked with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to fabricate and validate this Z1 heat source design at the lab’s Radiochemical Processing Laboratory. The Z1 demonstration heralded renewed interest in developing radioisotope power system (RPS) technology. In early 2025, the heat source was disassembled, and the Sr-90 was returned to the U.S. Department of Energy for continued use.
Xinyu Zhou, Kun Liu, Haitao Ju, Chen Zhao, Hongbo Zhang, Bo Wang, Wenbo Zhao, Zhang Chen
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 198 | Number 9 | September 2024 | Pages 1879-1899
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2023.2280344
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The linear axial expansion transport method avoids the negative source problem caused by transverse leakage in the traditional two-dimensional/one-dimensional (2D/1D) transport method and has better stability. However, stability is poor with the coarse-mesh finite difference (CMFD) accelerated linear axial expansion transport method. In this paper, the stability of the partial current–based coarse-mesh finite difference (p-CMFD) method, the optimally diffusive coarse-mesh finite difference (od-CMFD) method, and the linear prolongation coarse-mesh finite difference (lp-CMFD) method is studied based on Fourier analysis. The results of the Fourier analysis indicate that the problem is stable for axial coarse-mesh optical thickness less than 2 or larger than 50; the calculation diverges when the axial coarse-mesh optical thickness is between 2 and 50. The numerical results of the KUCA benchmark problem are the same as the results of the Fourier analysis.
