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
Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
Meeting Spotlight
ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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
Feb 2025
Jul 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
February 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Argonne scientists use AI to detect hidden defects in stainless steel
Imagine you’re constructing a bridge or designing an airplane, and everything appears flawless on the outside. However, microscopic flaws beneath the surface could weaken the entire structure over time.
These hidden defects can be difficult to detect with traditional inspection methods, but a new technology developed by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory is changing that. Using artificial intelligence and advanced imaging techniques, researchers have developed a method to reveal these tiny flaws before they become critical problems.
V. Vallet, B. Gastaldi, J. Politello, A. Santamarina, L. Van Den Durpel
Nuclear Technology | Volume 182 | Number 2 | May 2013 | Pages 187-206
Regular Technical Paper | Special Issue on the Symposium on Radiation Effects in Ceramic Oxide and Novel LWR Fuels / Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-A16430
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Pressurized water reactors (PWRs) are likely to produce the major portion of nuclear electricity during the 21st century. Nevertheless, even with the recycling of plutonium within MOX fuel, the utilization rate of uranium is very low and can be improved. Indeed, it grows significantly with the conversion ratio (CR) above the value of 0.8. The CR measures the competition between the production and the consumption rate of fissile isotopes as a function of the burnup. Thus, a CR higher than unity corresponds to a breeder reactor. The CR is the key factor that must be improved to allow a better use of natural uranium resources. A way to improve the CR would be to use thorium instead of uranium as a fertile material through the excellent qualities of its daughter, 233U.Consequently, the aim of this paper is to investigate the use of thorium in high conversion pressurized water reactors (HCPWR) with a reduced moderator-to-fuel volume ratio using a high plutonium content in a hexagonal lattice. This study focuses on two heterogeneous concepts that fulfill the following criteria: a large production of 233U, the respect of safety aspects, and a cycle length higher or equal to 300 equivalent full-power days. The first core, named M-ThPu, has 21% of fertile fuel assemblies composed of depleted uranium and 79% of MOX fuel assemblies containing ThPuO2 fuel, whereas the second core, named FA-Th, has ThO2 fertile assemblies and UdepletedPuO2 fuel assemblies, including axial layers of depleted uranium only. For each concept, the recycling of 233U with thorium in order to decrease the plutonium content in core has also been discussed. The conclusion for both concepts is that [approximately]25% of the PWR (with UOX fuel) could be replaced by HCPWR if 233U is reintroduced directly in each core concept. Therefore, this transition study shows no penalty in terms of natural uranium economy in moving toward a thorium fuel cycle in combination with the existing uranium cycle.