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
Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
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.
Daisuke Kawasaki, Joonhong Ahn, Paul L. Chambré, William G. Halsey
Nuclear Technology | Volume 148 | Number 2 | November 2004 | Pages 181-193
Technical Paper | High-Level Radioactive Waste Disposal | doi.org/10.13182/NT04-A3558
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Results are presented of an analytical study of mass release of a long-lived radionuclide from multiple waste canisters placed in a water-saturated repository in a two-dimensional array configuration. The radionuclide is assumed to be released congruently with the dissolution of the waste matrix. The concentration and release rate of the radionuclide from the downstream side of the repository region are numerically calculated to observe the effects of canister multiplicity and the leach time of the waste form. Peak values of the concentration and the release rate have been analytically formulated.For numerical illustration, the case of a Japanese repository concept is considered, where canisters containing vitrified wastes are placed in a water-saturated granitic rock. For the illustration, the nuclide 135Cs is chosen, which is characterized by a long half-life and high mobility in the assumed geologic media.The peak exit concentration becomes independent of the number of waste canisters in the flow direction if the number is sufficiently great. This peak value is a theoretical upper bound of the exit concentration, regardless of the number of canisters or the waste matrix leach time. The model is suitable for assisting in the design of a repository since the effects of the canister array configuration are reflected by the peak exit concentration and the peak release rate.
