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Division Spotlight
Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy
The mission of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy Division (NNPD) is to promote the peaceful use of nuclear technology while simultaneously preventing the diversion and misuse of nuclear material and technology through appropriate safeguards and security, and promotion of nuclear nonproliferation policies. To achieve this mission, the objectives of the NNPD are to: Promote policy that discourages the proliferation of nuclear technology and material to inappropriate entities. Provide information to ANS members, the technical community at large, opinion leaders, and decision makers to improve their understanding of nuclear nonproliferation issues. Become a recognized technical resource on nuclear nonproliferation, safeguards, and security issues. Serve as the integration and coordination body for nuclear nonproliferation activities for the ANS. Work cooperatively with other ANS divisions to achieve these objective nonproliferation policies.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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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Latest News
Commercial nuclear innovation "new space" age
In early 2006, a start-up company launched a small rocket from a tiny island in the Pacific. It exploded, showering the island with debris. A year later, a second launch attempt sent a rocket to space but failed to make orbit, burning up in the atmosphere. Another year brought a third attempt—and a third failure. The following month, in September 2008, the company used the last of its funds to launch a fourth rocket. It reached orbit, making history as the first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to do so.
Ashlea V. Colton, Blair P. Bromley
Nuclear Technology | Volume 196 | Number 1 | October 2016 | Pages 1-12
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NT16-70
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Thorium, a fertile nuclear fuel that is nearly three times as abundant as uranium, represents a long-term energy source that could complement uranium and eventually replace it. With the expected refurbishment and new construction of pressure tube heavy water reactors (PT-HWRs) within the international community, there is an opportunity to gain experience with thorium-based fuels and to start the transition toward the use of thorium as part of the nuclear fuel cycle.
This paper presents an evaluation of fuel types that could be implemented in the near-term to transition into thorium-based fuels in current PT-HWRs. The near-term fuel consists of small amounts of thorium (in a traditional 37-element fuel bundle that is mostly filled with natural uranium or slightly enriched uranium). In addition, a modified 37-element fuel bundle type comprised of slightly enriched uranium fuel (1.2 wt% 235U/U or less), a thorium central element, and the mass equivalent of 1-cm thorium end pellets was studied. Both lattice physics depletion simulations and full-core time-averaged neutron diffusion simulations were carried out to evaluate the performance and safety characteristics of the different studied full-core configurations.
The results demonstrate that adding small amounts of thorium into the fuel of a 37-element bundle is feasible, through enrichment, without reducing power in the reactor or incurring a severe burnup penalty. The most viable core configuration is a core filled with modified 37-element fuel containing slightly enriched uranium dioxide with 1.2 wt% 235U/U. Even with the addition of 1.2 kg of thorium metal to the bundle, significant gains are achieved, including an increased margin to maximum bundle power limit of 40 kW and a 50% increase in fissile utilization.