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Division Spotlight
Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
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
July 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Smarter waste strategies: Helping deliver on the promise of advanced nuclear
At COP28, held in Dubai in 2023, a clear consensus emerged: Nuclear energy must be a cornerstone of the global clean energy transition. With electricity demand projected to soar as we decarbonize not just power but also industry, transport, and heat, the case for new nuclear is compelling. More than 20 countries committed to tripling global nuclear capacity by 2050. In the United States alone, the Department of Energy forecasts that the country’s current nuclear capacity could more than triple, adding 200 GW of new nuclear to the existing 95 GW by mid-century.
Adrienne M. Lafleur, William S. Charlton, Howard O. Menlove, Martyn T. Swinhoe, Alain R. Lebrun
Nuclear Technology | Volume 181 | Number 2 | February 2013 | Pages 354-370
Technical Paper | Radiation Measurements and General Instrumentation | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-A15790
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A new nondestructive assay technique called self-interrogation neutron resonance densitometry (SINRD) is currently being developed at Los Alamos National Laboratory to improve existing nuclear safeguards and material accountability measurements for light water reactor fuel assemblies. The viability of using SINRD to improve the detection of possible diversion scenarios for pressurized water reactor 17 × 17 spent low-enriched uranium (LEU) and mixed oxide (MOX) fuel assemblies was investigated via Monte Carlo N-Particle eXtended transport code (MCNPX) simulations. The following capabilities were assessed: (a) verification of the burnup of a spent fuel assembly, (b) ability to distinguish fresh and one-cycle spent MOX fuel from three- and four-cycle spent LEU fuel, and (c) sensitivity and penetrability to the removal of fuel pins. SINRD utilizes 244Cm spontaneous-fission neutrons to self-interrogate the spent fuel pins. The amount of resonance absorption of these neutrons in the fuel can be quantified using a set of fission chambers (FCs) placed adjacent to the assembly. The sensitivity of SINRD is based on using the same fissile materials in the FCs as are present in the fuel because the effect of resonance absorption lines in the transmitted flux is amplified by the corresponding (n,f) reaction peaks in the FC. SINRD requires calibration with a reference assembly of similar geometry in a similar measurement configuration with the same surrounding moderator as the spent fuel assemblies. However, this densitometry method uses ratios of different detectors so that several systematic errors related to calibration and positioning cancel in the ratios.
