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
Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
Meeting Spotlight
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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Nuclear Science and Engineering
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Nuclear Technology
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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
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
Jintae Hong, Kwang-Jae Son, Jong-Bum Kim, Jin-Joo Kim
Nuclear Technology | Volume 206 | Number 8 | August 2020 | Pages 1213-1223
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2019.1682899
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Korea Aerospace Research Institute is planning to launch a satellite for the Korea launch vehicle’s low orbit test in 2021. An electrically heated thermoelectric generator (ETG) with a mass of 850 g (small ETG) will be one of its selected payloads for this test flight. To assess and assure the design heritage and the reliability of the ETG in the space environment, a small ETG will be tested at the top of the satellite for more than a year. In this study, the design for a small ETG with 10 W(thermal) of heat input was developed through simulations such as heat transfer analysis, modal analysis, thermoelectric analysis, and structural analysis. Then a mock-up was fabricated and basic performance tests were carried out to be ready for the space environment test.
