ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
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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
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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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April 2024
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February 2024
Latest News
Can hydrogen be the transportation fuel in an otherwise nuclear economy?
Let’s face it: The global economy should be powered primarily by nuclear power. And it probably will by the end of this century, with a still-significant assist from renewables and hydro. Once nuclear systems are dominant, the costs come down to where gas is now; and when carbon emissions are reduced to a small portion of their present state, it will become obvious that most other sources are only good in niche settings. I mean, why use small modular reactors to load-follow when they can just produce that power instead of buffering it?
Bhavya Lal, Jericho Locke
Nuclear Technology | Volume 207 | Number 6 | June 2021 | Pages 836-843
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2020.1847565
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Whether to use highly enriched uranium (HEU) or low-enriched uranium (LEU) in space reactors is a highly debated topic. Most analyses focus on performance as the principal determinant of use, where HEU has inherent advantages. This paper identifies seven dimensions along which rigorous comparisons must be made to evaluate whether HEU or LEU is an appropriate enrichment level for space nuclear systems. These dimensions are performance, safety, security and nonproliferation, timeliness of a system to come to fruition, fuel availability, cost, and ability to include commercial partners. Our analysis shows that HEU and LEU systems provide different advantages depending on the dimension of interest, and whether the United States continues to use HEU or switches to LEU is ultimately a policy decision, not a technical one.