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
Decommissioning & Environmental Sciences
The mission of the Decommissioning and Environmental Sciences (DES) Division is to promote the development and use of those skills and technologies associated with the use of nuclear energy and the optimal management and stewardship of the environment, sustainable development, decommissioning, remediation, reutilization, and long-term surveillance and maintenance of nuclear-related installations, and sites. The target audience for this effort is the membership of the Division, the Society, and the public at large.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Apr 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
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.
T. Wan, H. Obayashi, T. Sasa
Nuclear Technology | Volume 205 | Number 1 | January-February 2019 | Pages 188-199
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2018.1478591
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
To perform basic research and development to realize future accelerator-driven systems, a lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) alloy spallation target will be installed within the framework of the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC) project, Japan Atomic Energy Agency. The target will be bombarded by high-power pulsed proton beams (250 kW, 400 MeV, 25 Hz, and 0.5 ms in pulse duration). The beam window (BW) of the spallation target is critical because it should survive under severe conditions that occur, i.e., high temperature, high irradiation, intense stress, and various kinds of damage. Therefore, the target vessel should be carefully designed to obtain an adequate safety margin. Our previous research indicates that there is a stagnant flow region in the LBE at the BW tip due to the symmetric configuration of the target, which causes high temperature and concentration of stress on the BW. On the basis of our previous work, three types of upgraded target head designs are studied in the current research to reduce/move the stagnant flow region from the BW tip and to increase the target safety margin. Thermal-hydraulic analyses and structural analyses for the target head designs are carried out numerically under a steady-state condition. Results illustrate that the designs can almost eliminate the stagnant flow region in the LBE. As a consequence, the concentration of thermal stress on the BW is released and greatly decreased. The safety margin of the target is improved through this study.