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
Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
Meeting Spotlight
ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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
May 2025
Nuclear Technology
April 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
General Kenneth Nichols and the Manhattan Project
Nichols
The Oak Ridger has published the latest in a series of articles about General Kenneth D. Nichols, the Manhattan Project, and the 1954 Atomic Energy Act. The series has been produced by Nichols’ grandniece Barbara Rogers Scollin and Oak Ridge (Tenn.) city historian David Ray Smith. Gen. Nichols (1907–2000) was the district engineer for the Manhattan Engineer District during the Manhattan Project.
As Smith and Scollin explain, Nichols “had supervision of the research and development connected with, and the design, construction, and operation of, all plants required to produce plutonium-239 and uranium-235, including the construction of the towns of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Richland, Washington. The responsibility of his position was massive as he oversaw a workforce of both military and civilian personnel of approximately 125,000; his Oak Ridge office became the center of the wartime atomic energy’s activities.”
Nicholas Chornoboy, Alexandra Levinsky, Charles Kitson, Blair P. Bromley
Nuclear Technology | Volume 204 | Number 1 | October 2018 | Pages 110-118
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2018.1454229
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Lattice physics depletion calculations were performed to obtain postburnup fuel compositions for several candidate advanced heavy water reactor fuels. These fuel compositions were used as input for a deep geological repository (DGR) modeling tool for hydrogeology simulations to simulate the transport of radionuclides to the surface, to find the radionuclides that reach the surface path through the biosphere, and to estimate the hypothetical dose rate to humans located above the DGR.
Three primary factors were found to contribute to surface dose rate: burnup, composition of the primary waste matrix, and percentage of thorium in the fuel. Higher burnup and thorium percentage contribute to increased surface dose rates through increased 129I production, while a primarily uranium waste matrix increases surface dose rate through faster dissolution leading to increased radionuclide release rate from the fuel. For all the hypothetical fuels investigated, the estimated dose rates are well within the Nuclear Waste Management Organization’s hypothetical DGR’s acceptance criterion of 0.3 mSv/year.
