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
Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
Meeting Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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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August 2025
Nuclear Technology
July 2025
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Latest News
Hinkley Point C gets over $6 billion in financing from Apollo
U.S.-based private capital group Apollo Global has committed £4.5 billion ($6.13 billion) in financing to EDF Energy, primarily to support the U.K.’s Hinkley Point C station. The move addresses funding needs left unmet since China General Nuclear Power Corporation—which originally planned to pay for one-third of the project—exited in 2023 amid U.K. government efforts to reduce Chinese involvement.
Dakota J. Allen, Stuart R. Blair, Marshall G. Millett, Martin E. Nelson
Nuclear Technology | Volume 205 | Number 6 | June 2019 | Pages 755-765
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2018.1524228
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This project investigated the use of uranium nitride (UN) and uranium carbide (UC) reactor fuel and compared their performance to uranium oxide (UO2) in a nuclear reactor for space-based applications. As a baseline for analysis, the Prometheus Project reference reactor module was considered: a gas-cooled fast reactor using highly enriched UO2 fuel with 1 MW of thermal power output and a 15-year core life. An estimate of the temperature feedback effect on reactivity was made for each fuel type at the beginning, middle, and end of core life; results for each fuel were compared. This analysis indicates that UN-fueled reactors may exhibit a stabilizing negative reactivity feedback for increasing temperatures and that this benefit persists in the face of fuel composition changes over core life. The benefit of increased uranium loading density was assessed through a quantitative estimate of overall core weight for each fuel. It was found that weight savings on the order of 1000 kg can be realized for a reactor of this size by using either UC or UN rather than UO2.
