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Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
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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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Latest News
AI at work: Southern Nuclear’s adoption of Copilot agents drives fleet forward
Southern Nuclear is leading the charge in artificial intelligence integration, with employee-developed applications driving efficiencies in maintenance, operations, safety, and performance.
The tools span all roles within the company, with thousands of documented uses throughout the fleet, including improved maintenance efficiency, risk awareness in maintenance activities, and better-informed decision-making. The data-intensive process of preparing for and executing maintenance operations is streamlined by leveraging AI to put the right information at the fingertips for maintenance leaders, planners, schedulers, engineers, and technicians.
N. Kaffezakis, D. Kotlyar
Nuclear Technology | Volume 206 | Number 1 | January 2020 | Pages 48-72
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2019.1616475
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper details the development and optimization of a novel seed blanket fuel assembly designed for utilizing high-conversion Th-233U fuel cycles in the current fleet of pressurized water reactor vessels. Previous studies have revealed the necessity to downrate the total power of cores loaded with seed blanket assemblies due to issues with high power density in the seed regions and thermal-hydraulic failure. This new design features solid packing of the blanket region with the objective of increasing the total power and the economic competitiveness. This paper utilized the Serpent code to study the depletion of various designs of the solid blanket assembly, and THERMO is utilized for thermal-hydraulic analysis. A favorable design was developed that attained an excess 1.7% fissile material from the initial loading and that can be run at a maximum power up to 66% greater than the comparable designs used as references in this paper.