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Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy
The mission of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy Division (NNPD) is to promote the peaceful use of nuclear technology while simultaneously preventing the diversion and misuse of nuclear material and technology through appropriate safeguards and security, and promotion of nuclear nonproliferation policies. To achieve this mission, the objectives of the NNPD are to: Promote policy that discourages the proliferation of nuclear technology and material to inappropriate entities. Provide information to ANS members, the technical community at large, opinion leaders, and decision makers to improve their understanding of nuclear nonproliferation issues. Become a recognized technical resource on nuclear nonproliferation, safeguards, and security issues. Serve as the integration and coordination body for nuclear nonproliferation activities for the ANS. Work cooperatively with other ANS divisions to achieve these objective nonproliferation policies.
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2025 ANS Annual Conference
June 15–18, 2025
Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott 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!
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High-temperature plumbing and advanced reactors
The use of nuclear fission power and its role in impacting climate change is hotly debated. Fission advocates argue that short-term solutions would involve the rapid deployment of Gen III+ nuclear reactors, like Vogtle-3 and -4, while long-term climate change impact would rely on the creation and implementation of Gen IV reactors, “inherently safe” reactors that use passive laws of physics and chemistry rather than active controls such as valves and pumps to operate safely. While Gen IV reactors vary in many ways, one thing unites nearly all of them: the use of exotic, high-temperature coolants. These fluids, like molten salts and liquid metals, can enable reactor engineers to design much safer nuclear reactors—ultimately because the boiling point of each fluid is extremely high. Fluids that remain liquid over large temperature ranges can provide good heat transfer through many demanding conditions, all with minimal pressurization. Although the most apparent use for these fluids is advanced fission power, they have the potential to be applied to other power generation sources such as fusion, thermal storage, solar, or high-temperature process heat.1–3
Dumitru Serghiuta, John Tholammakkil
Nuclear Technology | Volume 205 | Number 12 | December 2019 | Pages 1513-1528
Critical Review | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2019.1570751
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper reviews the attributes and challenges of applying the functional failure concept and the use of Best-Estimate Plus Uncertainty methods in evaluating protective systems in the risk space. As an illustrative example, the paper uses the case of the effectiveness of CANada Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) reactor shutdown systems. A risk-informed formulation is first introduced for estimation of a reasonable limit for functional failure probability using the Swiss Cheese model. In the real application, there are several challenges in realistically estimating probabilities of exceeding a prescribed design or regulatory limit. Key challenges discussed in this critical review include the use of complex, computationally intensive predictive models; modeling completeness; assumptions about input distributions; validation; separation of uncertainties; and selection of statistical model and algorithms. The use of hybrid deterministic-probabilistic methods may address these challenges to a certain extent.