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
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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
Sep 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
October 2025
Nuclear Technology
September 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
High temperature fission chambers engineered for AMR/SMR safety and performance
As the global energy landscape shifts towards safer, smaller, and more flexible nuclear power, Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) and Gen. IV* technologies are at the forefront of innovation. These advanced designs pose new challenges in size, efficiency, and operating environment that traditional instrumentation and control solutions aren’t always designed to handle.
John Bistline, Revis James, Andrew Sowder
Nuclear Technology | Volume 205 | Number 8 | August 2019 | Pages 1075-1094
Regular Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2019.1574119
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The potential role for advanced nuclear reactors in U.S. markets is highly uncertain and depends on future technologies, markets, and policies. Using a detailed model of power sector investments and operations, this analysis systematically explores potential drivers and barriers to midcentury advanced nuclear reactor commercialization. Model results suggest that extensive deployment of advanced nuclear technologies would likely require a combination of new policies (especially carbon pricing), innovation in technologies to significantly lower capital and financing costs (likely below $4000/kW), and innovation in business models to enable nonelectricity revenue streams. With policies targeting stringent emissions reductions, the presence of technologies like lower-cost advanced nuclear can reduce compliance costs by over 50%. However, without strong policy support and in a market with low-cost renewables and gas, costs of advanced nuclear reactors would have to decrease substantially from current estimates to make them economically competitive by 2050.