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
Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
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
June 2025
Nuclear Technology
May 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Sam Altman steps down as Oklo board chair
Advanced nuclear company Oklo Inc. has new leadership for its board of directors as billionaire Sam Altman is stepping down from the position he has held since 2015. The move is meant to open new partnership opportunities with OpenAI, where Altman is CEO, and other artificial intelligence companies.
Seok Yoon, Min-Jun Kim, Seung-Rae Lee, Geon-Young Kim
Nuclear Technology | Volume 204 | Number 2 | November 2018 | Pages 213-226
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2018.1471909
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A deep geological repository has been considered as one of the most appropriate options for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste (HLW), and it will be constructed in a host rock area at a depth of 500 to 1000 m below the ground surface. The geological repository system is based on the concept of an engineered barrier system, and it consists of a disposal canister with packed spent fuel, buffer material, backfill material, and intact rock. The buffer plays an important role to assure the disposal safety of HLW since it can restrain the release of radionuclides and protect the canister from the inflow of groundwater. Since an increased heat quantity is released from the disposal canister into the surrounding buffer material, the thermal conductivity of the buffer material constitutes a key parameter needed to analyze the entire disposal safety. Therefore, this study presents a thermal conductivity prediction model for compacted bentonite buffer material from Kyungju, which is the only bentonite produced in Korea. The thermal conductivity of the compacted bentonite buffer from Kyungju was measured using a hot-wire method according to varying degrees of saturation, dry density, and temperature. The measurements showed that the thermal conductivity was concurrently influenced by the degree of saturation, dry density, and temperature variation. A regression model was proposed to predict the thermal conductivity of the compacted bentonite buffer from Kyungju using the degree of saturation and the dry density as the dependent variables. An additional regression model was also introduced that incorporated the temperature variation as an additional dependent variable, and the two models were directly compared with each other.