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.
Division Spotlight
Isotopes & Radiation
Members are devoted to applying nuclear science and engineering technologies involving isotopes, radiation applications, and associated equipment in scientific research, development, and industrial processes. Their interests lie primarily in education, industrial uses, biology, medicine, and health physics. Division committees include Analytical Applications of Isotopes and Radiation, Biology and Medicine, Radiation Applications, Radiation Sources and Detection, and Thermal Power Sources.
Meeting Spotlight
2021 Student Conference
April 8–10, 2021
Virtual Meeting
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Mar 2021
Jul 2020
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
March 2021
Nuclear Technology
February 2021
Fusion Science and Technology
January 2021
Latest News
NC State celebrates 70 years of nuclear engineering education
An early picture of the research reactor building on the North Carolina State University campus. The Department of Nuclear Engineering is celebrating the 70th anniversary of its nuclear engineering curriculum in 2020–2021. Photo: North Carolina State University
The Department of Nuclear Engineering at North Carolina State University has spent the 2020–2021 academic year celebrating the 70th anniversary of its becoming the first U.S. university to establish a nuclear engineering curriculum. It started in 1950, when Clifford Beck, then of Oak Ridge, Tenn., obtained support from NC State’s dean of engineering, Harold Lampe, to build the nation’s first university nuclear reactor and, in conjunction, establish an educational curriculum dedicated to nuclear engineering.
The department, host to the 2021 ANS Virtual Student Conference, scheduled for April 8–10, now features 23 tenure/tenure-track faculty and three research faculty members. “What a journey for the first nuclear engineering curriculum in the nation,” said Kostadin Ivanov, professor and department head.
Shelly X. Li, Steven D. Herrmann, Michael F. Simpson
Nuclear Technology | Volume 171 | Number 3 | September 2010 | Pages 292-299
Technical Paper | Pyro 08 Special / Reprocessing | dx.doi.org/10.13182/NT10-A10864
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The results of a recently reported series of bench-scale actinide recovery experiments with liquid cadmium cathodes (LCCs) are subjected to a more detailed analysis in this paper. It is suggested that separation efficiency (SE), not separation factor (SF), should be used to assess the effectiveness of an LCC to separate actinides from rare earth (RE) elements. The common definition of SF for any pair of actinide and RE elements in the molten salt/liquid Cd system is the ratio of their distribution coefficients, which are measured under equilibrium conditions. The definition of SE is broader than that of SF. For any pair of actinide and RE elements in the molten salt/liquid Cd system, SE is the ratio of their distribution coefficients, such as SEPu-U = DPu/DU, where DPu and DU are measured at either equilibrium or nonequilibrium conditions. The relationship of SE with SF is linear and can be expressed as SEPu-U = DPu/DU and DPu = SFPu-UDU + b. When DPu and DU are measured under equilibrium conditions, SE is equal to SF.The physical or chemical meaning of the intercept b is not clear. From a mathematical point of view, the absolute values of b reveal the differences between the measured DPu/DU or SE and SF. The negative values of b indicate that the SE measurement results are smaller than the associated SF. The values of b may be used to evaluate the SE of LCC on electrochemically recovered actinides from fission product elements. An electrochemical model was developed to investigate the mechanism of RE contamination of the actinides collected by the LCC. It was confirmed that REs were electrochemically transported into the Cd phase. A more negative LCC voltage has a stronger impact on the quantities of REs transported into the Cd than those of the actinides.
