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
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.
Meeting Spotlight
ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Apr 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2025
Nuclear Technology
April 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Norway’s Halden reactor takes first step toward decommissioning
The government of Norway has granted the transfer of the Halden research reactor from the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) to the state agency Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning (NND). The 25-MWt Halden boiling water reactor operated from 1958 to 2018 and was used in the research of nuclear fuel, reactor internals, plant procedures and monitoring, and human factors.
Milan Vujović, Miloš Vujisić
Nuclear Technology | Volume 208 | Number 11 | November 2022 | Pages 1649-1665
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2022.2070354
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Several select geopolymer, polymer, and composite materials are considered as potential candidates for the inner shielding in containers used for storage and disposal of low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste, from the perspective of radiation effects. The suitability of the probed materials is examined through Monte Carlo simulations, which yield absorbed dose values in container inner shieldings of various compositions and dimensions. The radioactive waste considered in the simulation models contains 60Co or 137Cs and is placed inside standard 216.5-L (55-gal) drums, in either compacted or solidified form. The influence of container stacking, in either a storage or a disposal environment, on the dose in the shielding is also taken into account. The simulation results are used for calculating the dose-dependent overpressure within the container caused by the gas generated in the inner shielding through radiolysis. Two types of waste activity limits are determined for each of the researched shielding materials: one below which the overpressure decreases after the initial heat-induced jump and another that results in an overpressure that stays just below the maximum tolerable value. Dose-dependent changes of the polymer and composite shielding materials’ molecular weights are also calculated. The obtained results show that with regard to the radiation effects caused by the investigated sources, the examined materials are compatible with the proposed use as inner shielding in radioactive waste containers.