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 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
Latest Magazine Issues
Aug 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
September 2026
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
August 2026
Latest News
Undeclared uranium hitches a ride on cobalt exports from Congo, study says
Philippe (left) and Manzuk quantified the amount of uranium that has been exported from the DRC in cobalt shipments or left behind in the environment. (Photo: Joel Hallberg/UW–Madison)
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Princeton University have published a study in Nature Communications that calls attention to a blind spot in nuclear nonproliferation: The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has exported thousands of metric tons of uranium, and there is no accounting for where it has gone.
In partnership with Lighthouse Reports and the Financial Times, UW–Madison nuclear engineering professor and nuclear security expert Sébastien Philippe and Ryan Manzuk, a geologist and research fellow in Philippe’s group and at Princeton, conducted the study using countrywide mineralization and geochemical data.
J. S. Baek, A. Cuadra, L.-Y. Cheng, A. L. Hanson, N. R. Brown, D. J. Diamond
Nuclear Technology | Volume 189 | Number 1 | January 2015 | Pages 71-86
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-124
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A program is underway to convert the current high-enriched uranium (HEU) fuel to low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel in the 20-MW D2O-moderated research reactor (NBSR) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. A RELAP5 model has been developed to analyze postulated accidents in the NBSR with the present HEU fuel and a proposed LEU fuel. The model includes the reactor vessel, primary pumps, shutdown pumps, various valves, heat exchangers, and average and hottest fuel elements and flow channels in the region where flow enters through an inner plenum (6 fuel elements) and a region where flow enters through an outer plenum (24 elements). The equilibrium cycle power distributions in the fuel elements were determined based on three-dimensional Monte Carlo neutron transport calculations performed with the MCNPX code. In this paper we discuss safety analyses conducted for the loss-of-flow accidents resulting from either loss of electrical power or inadvertent throttling of flow control valves at the inlets to the inner and outer plena. The analysis shows that the fuel conversion will not lead to significant changes in the safety analysis and that the calculated maximum clad temperatures, minimum critical heat flux ratios, and minimum onset of flow instability ratios assure that there is adequate margin to fuel failure.