ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
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Division Spotlight
Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver 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!
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Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2025
Nuclear Technology
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May 2025
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Industry Update—May 2025
Here is a recap of industry happenings from the recent past:
TerraPower’s Natrium reactor advances on several fronts
TerraPower has continued making aggressive progress in several areas for its under-construction Natrium Reactor Demonstration Project since the beginning of the year. Natrium is an advanced 345-MWe reactor that has liquid sodium as a coolant, improved fuel utilization, enhanced safety features, and an integrated energy storage system, allowing for a brief power output boost to 500-MWe if needed for grid resiliency. The company broke ground for its first Natrium plant in 2024 near a retiring coal plant in Kemmerer, Wyo.
John B. Rajan, Romesh Kumar, Donald R. Vissers
Nuclear Technology | Volume 83 | Number 2 | November 1988 | Pages 205-211
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT88-A34162
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This study was conducted to develop improved treatment/disposal techniques for waste reactive metals. The basic approach considered was to convert the reactive metal (primarily sodium, with small quantities of radioactive and nonradioactive contaminants) to a glass form by reacting it primarily with silica sand, along with other minor additives to impart mechanical and chemical integrity to the waste form. A high-soda silicate glass was selected as the most desirable glass form for waste sodium disposal; however, it was found that small quantities of other additives would be necessary to impart acceptable resistance to leaching by groundwaters and other environmental stresses. Differential thermal analyses (DTA) with varying compositions of sodium oxide, silicon dioxide, calcium oxide, and magnesium oxide showed that the primary glass-forming reactions occur at <300°C. For the well-mixed samples used in the DTA tests, there were no additional thermal effects as the temperature was raised to 1260° C, indicating that the glass-forming reaction was essentially completed at the low temperature. Samples of different glasses were produced in a laboratory furnace to determine qualitative glass characteristics. Samples of sodium disilicate glass were tested for teachability of sodium by water. This particular glass had a relatively high sodium leach rate of 0.73 × 10−2 μg.mm−2.min−1 at room temperature in pure water. A conceptual one-step process for waste sodium conversion was designed, incorporating a low-g, low-pressure-drop, high-temperature cyclone as the reaction vessel as well as the reaction product separator.