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
Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy
The mission of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy Division (NNPD) is to promote the peaceful use of nuclear technology while simultaneously preventing the diversion and misuse of nuclear material and technology through appropriate safeguards and security, and promotion of nuclear nonproliferation policies. To achieve this mission, the objectives of the NNPD are to: Promote policy that discourages the proliferation of nuclear technology and material to inappropriate entities. Provide information to ANS members, the technical community at large, opinion leaders, and decision makers to improve their understanding of nuclear nonproliferation issues. Become a recognized technical resource on nuclear nonproliferation, safeguards, and security issues. Serve as the integration and coordination body for nuclear nonproliferation activities for the ANS. Work cooperatively with other ANS divisions to achieve these objective nonproliferation policies.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Jun 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
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.
Wayne R. Zeuch
Nuclear Technology | Volume 51 | Number 3 | December 1980 | Pages 476-488
Technical Paper | Mechanics Applications to Fast Breeder Reactor Safety / Reactor | doi.org/10.13182/NT80-A32583
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
There has been an emphasis, recently, on the calculation of potential hazards beyond the primary containment of liquid-metal fast breeder reactors. A number of analyses have been conducted in order to follow the progression of a highly energetic core disruptive accident from its inception to its consequences in secondary containment. The investigation is limited to the direct mechanical effects of the initial core disassembly phase. An effort has been made to develop an integrated treatment of the accident sequence by extending the capability of primary containment codes, when necessary, to treat as broad a range of accident phenomena as possible. Beginning with the initiation phase, the release of energy to reactor internals and primary containment boundary is discussed. Emphasis must be placed on highly energetic accidents if the intent is to generate such severe phenomena as missiles and sodium spillage. Characterization of energetic events is accomplished by deriving work potential as a function of reactivity insertion in the reactor core. This source term is used for the primary containment analysis. Energy partitioning for hypothetical core disruptive accidents within the primary containment provides information concerning the system integrity and the potential for consequences that go beyond the primary containment boundary. The behavior of the reactor cover deserves special attention. During the slug impact phase, forces transmitted to the head would be the source for potential missiles and can open leak paths for sodium spillage. Studies on missile generation and sodium spillage are currently being performed to estimate the potential effects on secondary containment. Scoping calculations of generic missiles, generated by sodium slug impact loadings, as well as the coupled motion of an unrestrained reactor plug during the impact transient have been completed. Modeling of penetrations in the reactor cover for sodium spillage has been accomplished and spillage due to sodium impact on the reactor cover has been investigated.