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Division Spotlight
Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
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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June 2024
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May 2024
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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.
F. Nagase, R. O. Gauntt, M. Naito
Nuclear Technology | Volume 196 | Number 3 | December 2016 | Pages 499-510
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NT16-10
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Benchmark Study of the Accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (BSAF) project, run by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development/Nuclear Energy Agency, was established in November 2012. The primary objectives of this benchmark study are to estimate accident progression and status inside the nuclear reactors, including the distribution of fuel debris, and consequently, to contribute to the decommissioning activity at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Altogether, 17 organizations from eight countries calculated the thermohydraulic behavior inside the three reactors for the time span of about 6 days from the occurrence of the earthquake with their severe accident integral codes. Since many boundary conditions are unknown for the accident, those necessary for the calculation were discussed and determined by the participants.
The results submitted were compared on coolant level change, hydrogen generation, initiation and progression of melt in fuel bundle and control blade, failure of reactor pressure vessel, distribution and composition of molten and solidified materials, and progression of the molten core–concrete interaction. Finally, the current estimates of the accident progression and status inside the reactors were summarized together with the still remaining uncertainties and data needs as the output from the project.