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 Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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
Nov 2025
Jul 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
December 2025
Nuclear Technology
November 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Industry Update—November 2025
Here is a recap of recent industry happenings:
TerraPower’s Natrium plans for Wyoming, Utah move forward
TerraPower has reported a number of developments related to its Natrium sodium fast reactor project. In the project’s fifth round of procurement awards, the company awarded three supplier contracts to support the Natrium plant’s construction, which is underway in Kemmerer, Wyo., and is expected to be completed in 2030. AvanTech will design advanced sodium processing system modules and supporting skids for the Natrium plant, as well as fabricate and deliver the test and fill facility cold trap skid. Structural Integrity Associates will design and fabricate the sodium cover gas gamma spectroscopy analysis cabinet, a radiation monitoring system. PAR Systems will design and fabricate the pool handling machine, a specialized crane system for spent fuel pool operations.
Mark D. DeHart, Zain Karriem, Michael A. Pope
Nuclear Technology | Volume 201 | Number 3 | March 2018 | Pages 247-266
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2017.1322451
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A conceptual low-enrichment uranium (LEU) fuel design has been developed for the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at Idaho National Laboratory. The ATR is currently fueled with a high-enrichment fuel but is slated to be converted to LEU under programs led by the National Nuclear Security Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy. A conceptual LEU fuel design, the Enhanced LEU Fuel (ELF), has been developed assuming power peaking control through the use of variable fuel meat thicknesses and no use of burnable poison. In initial work, this design was shown to satisfy performance requirements for ATR operation. Following these design calculations, a safety analysis process was initiated to demonstrate that the ELF design would successfully meet safety limits for postulated accident conditions. Those calculations, performed using RELAP5 and ATR-SINDA, require physics analysis to provide spatial power distributions and kinetics parameters for various core operations configurations. This article describes the findings of the physics analysis and provides predictions for the behavior of a LEU-fueled version of ATR, and compares these to calculations of the performance of the current high-enrichment uranium fuel.