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
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver 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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Apr 2025
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Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2025
Nuclear Technology
May 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Sam Altman steps down as Oklo board chair
Advanced nuclear company Oklo Inc. has new leadership for its board of directors as billionaire Sam Altman is stepping down from the position he has held since 2015. The move is meant to open new partnership opportunities with OpenAI, where Altman is CEO, and other artificial intelligence companies.
Fawzy Hammad Sallam, Eman Mohamed Ibrahim, Sayed Fahmy Hassan, A. Omar
Nuclear Technology | Volume 208 | Number 11 | November 2022 | Pages 1666-1680
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2022.2072650
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The shielding characteristics of natural bentonite can be enhanced based on calcination and ball-milling processes for protection against gamma radiation. The calcination process increases the content of the oxide, which enhances the mass attenuation coefficient; however, the elimination of water and organic matter from bentonite clay structures increases the particle size, where large particle size has a negative effect on this mass attenuation coefficient. Therefore, the calcinated bentonite has been ball-milled to reduce the particle size and improve the attenuation properties of natural bentonite. Furthermore, the calcination process occurs at 700°C for 2 h because dehydration is completed above 500°C while dehydroxylation is observed at 700°C. Therefore, the shielding parameters have been determined for calcinated, ball-milled, pressed bentonite clay samples according to different gamma-ray energies (662, 1173, and 1332 keV), where the experimental setup is based on narrow beam transmission techniques with two sources (137Cs and 60Co). In addition, the particle size of bentonite clay has been characterized using X-ray diffraction patterns depending on two different methods: dynamic light scattering and Williamson-Hall size analyses. This study shows that the calcinated, ball-milled bentonite pressed at 150 bar has the highest linear and mass attenuation coefficients of μ = 0.13 cm−1 and μm = 0.082 cm2/gm, respectively. Moreover, the experimental and theoretical investigation of the mass attenuation coefficient is in good agreement.
