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.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
Apr 2026
Jan 2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2026
Nuclear Technology
March 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Access anywhere, anytime: Nuclear power, Ice Camp, and Rickover’s enduring standard of excellence
Admiral William Houston
As U.S. Navy submarines surface through Arctic ice during Ice Camp 2026, they demonstrate more than operational proficiency in one of the harshest environments on Earth. They reaffirm a technological truth first proven in August 1958, when the USS Nautilus completed its submerged transit of the North Pole: nuclear power enables access anywhere, anytime.
The Arctic is unforgiving, with vast distances, extreme cold, shifting ice, and no logistical infrastructure. Conventional propulsion is constrained by fuel, air, and endurance. Nuclear propulsion removes those constraints. Only a nuclear-powered submarine can operate anywhere in the world’s oceans, including under the polar ice, undetected and at maximum capability for extended periods. Nuclear power provides sustained high speed and the endurance to reposition across the globe without refueling.
Yutaka Kameo, Mikio Nakashima, Takakuni Hirabayashi
Nuclear Technology | Volume 137 | Number 2 | February 2002 | Pages 139-146
Technical Paper | Decontamination/Decommissioning | doi.org/10.13182/NT02-A3263
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To apply the laser ablation technique for decontamination of metal wastes contaminated with radioactive nuclides, the effect of irradiation atmospheres on removal of oxide layers on steel surfaces by laser ablation was studied. Based on the assumption that the absorption of laser light follows the Lambert-Beer law, ablation parameters, such as absorption length and threshold fluence for ablation, of sintered Fe2O3 and stainless and carbon steels were measured in He, O2, Kr, or SF6 atmospheres. The results indicated that SF6 was the most effective gas of all irradiation atmospheres studied for the exclusive removal of oxide layers formed on stainless and carbon steel samples in high-temperature pressurized water. Secondary ion mass spectroscopic measurement and scanning electron microscopic observation confirmed that no oxide layer existed on the steel samples after the exclusive removal with laser irradiation.
