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
Decommissioning & Environmental Sciences
The mission of the Decommissioning and Environmental Sciences (DES) Division is to promote the development and use of those skills and technologies associated with the use of nuclear energy and the optimal management and stewardship of the environment, sustainable development, decommissioning, remediation, reutilization, and long-term surveillance and maintenance of nuclear-related installations, and sites. The target audience for this effort is the membership of the Division, the Society, and the public at large.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Apr 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
May 2025
Latest News
Dragonfly, a Pu-fueled drone heading to Titan, gets key NASA approval
Curiosity landed on Mars sporting a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) in 2012, and a second NASA rover, Perseverance, landed in 2021. Both are still rolling across the red planet in the name of science. Another exploratory craft with a similar plutonium-238–fueled RTG but a very different mission—to fly between multiple test sites on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon—recently got one step closer to deployment.
On April 25, NASA and the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) announced that the Dragonfly mission to Saturn’s icy moon passed its critical design review. “Passing this mission milestone means that Dragonfly’s mission design, fabrication, integration, and test plans are all approved, and the mission can now turn its attention to the construction of the spacecraft itself,” according to NASA.
C. Courtois, J. P. Moncouyoux, E. Revertegat
Nuclear Technology | Volume 115 | Number 2 | August 1996 | Pages 198-207
Technical Paper | Characterization of Radioactive Waste in France / Radioactive Waste Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT96-A35266
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
For many years conditioning processes have been studied and developed in France with the general objective of putting wastes into solid and stable waste forms having good leaching properties and long-term stability. The knowledge of radioactive characteristics of waste enables one to define what will be its final destination (near-surface or geological disposal) and the nature of the required conditioning and package with respect to French regulatory requirements. After waste materials have been treated prior to conditioning, they have to be encapsulated for transport storage and disposal. The main matrices (such as bitumen, glass, cement, polymers) and processes that have been developed in France are indicated. The state of art for each matrix is briefly reviewed taking into account long-term behavior studies. Main advantages and drawbacks are indicated. Recent developments are also briefly reviewed for previous matrices and also for new mineral matrices such as ceramics and molten metal. General consideration is given to the conditioning processes that have been studied and developed up to the industrial level in France.