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
Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
Meeting Spotlight
Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
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
September 2024
Nuclear Technology
August 2024
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Taking shape: Fusion energy ecosystems built with public-private partnerships
It’s possible to describe fusion in simple terms: heat and squeeze small atoms to get abundant clean energy. But there’s nothing simple about getting fusion ready for the grid.
Private developers, national lab and university researchers, suppliers, and end users working toward that goal are developing a range of complex technologies to reach fusion temperatures and pressures, confounded by science and technology gaps linked to plasma behavior; materials, diagnostics, and electronics for extreme environments; fuel cycle sustainability; and economics.
Jeremy L. Gustafson
Nuclear Technology | Volume 207 | Number 6 | June 2021 | Pages 882-884
Technical Summary | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2021.1890991
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
As future U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) missions aim for destinations farther out into the solar system, space nuclear propulsion (SNP), and in particular nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP), is the only feasible near-term technology able to provide specific impulses of 900 s or greater and thrust in the range of tens of thousands of pounds. To maximize the success of the SNP program as a whole, a Fuel and Moderator Development Plan (FMDP) was created to mature mission critical technology, such as the reactor fuel form and moderator material. This technical note details the conceptual testing reference design that provides the basis for the FMDP for future design and testing activities to meet NASA’s goals.
Through this work BWX Technologies, Inc. and its subsidiaries, referred to as BWXT, continue to be an integral part of government space nuclear programs and has historically been a part of major design, manufacturing, and testing developments. As an example, during the 1990s BWXT supported fuel development for the Space NTP (SNTP) program, an advanced technology development effort aimed at providing the nation with a new and dramatically higher performing rocket engine that would more than double the performance of the best conventional chemical rocket engines. Since 2017, BWXT has been participating in the NASA SNP program for the low-enrichment uranium NTP rocket engine as part of its Game Changing Development feasibility conceptual design program and now more recently Technology Demonstration Mission.