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
Mar 2026
Jul 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
March 2026
Nuclear Technology
February 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
April 2026
Latest News
NRC approves TerraPower construction permit
Today, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced that it has approved TerraPower’s construction permit application for Kemmerer Unit 1, the company’s first deployment of Natrium, its flagship sodium fast reactor.
This approval is a significant milestone on three fronts. For TerraPower, it represents another step forward in demonstrating its technology. For the Department of Energy, it reflects progress (despite delays) for the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP). For the NRC, it is the first approval granted to a commercial reactor in nearly a decade—and the first approval of a commercial non–light water reactor in more than 40 years.
Shunsuke Ishimoto, Kenji Ishibashi, Hideki Tenzou, Toshinobu Sasa
Nuclear Technology | Volume 138 | Number 3 | June 2002 | Pages 300-312
Technical Paper | Accelerators | doi.org/10.13182/NT02-1
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Since thorium is an abundant fertile material, there is hope for the thorium-cycle fuels for an accelerator driven subcritical system (ADS). The ADS utilizes neutrons, which are generated by high-energy protons of giga-electron-volt-grade, but cross sections for the interaction of high-energy particles are not available for use in current ADS engineering design. In this paper the neutron behavior in the ADS target based on the related experimental data is clarified, and the feasibility of the ADS regarding both the molten salts (Flibe: 7LiF-BeF2-ThF4-233UF4, chloride: NaCl-ThCl4-233UCl4) and oxide ([Th, 233U]O2) fuels is examined. The difference between the experiment and the calculated result at the ADS high-energy region is discussed. In a comparison of the fuels, the time evolution of keff and the beam current in the burning period are calculated. The calculated results suggest that the ADS with solid fuel has better future prospects than that with molten-salt fuels. The ADS with Flibe molten-salt fuel tends to require a high beam current and consequently needs the installation of a metallic spallation target and the continuous removal for fission products and protactinium. In comparison with the Flibe fuel, the ADS with chloride fuel has a flux distribution that is similar to a solid fuel reactor.
