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
Education, Training & Workforce Development
The Education, Training & Workforce Development Division provides communication among the academic, industrial, and governmental communities through the exchange of views and information on matters related to education, training and workforce development in nuclear and radiological science, engineering, and technology. Industry leaders, education and training professionals, and interested students work together through Society-sponsored meetings and publications, to enrich their professional development, to educate the general public, and to advance nuclear and radiological science and engineering.
Meeting Spotlight
Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2023)
February 6–9, 2023
Amelia Island, FL|Omni Amelia Island Resort
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
Feb 2023
Jul 2022
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
February 2023
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Show support for a Lego nuclear power plant
A creative fan of Lego—and nuclear power—has designed a nuclear power plant out of the famous building blocks and has submitted the idea to the Lego Group for possible production—but first, the idea needs the support of the public.
Dennis Nikitaev, L. Dale Thomas
Nuclear Technology | Volume 208 | Number 1 | December 2022 | Pages S96-S106
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2021.2021768
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Water, ammonia, and other volatiles that can be used for propellant have been found on the Moon, and the technology that will be used to extract them has been laboratory tested. One of the considered propulsion systems for a crewed mission to Mars is nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP). However, current reference missions consider hydrogen as the main propellant, which is technologically difficult to store. Electrolysis units are required to process the lunar water to separate it into oxygen and hydrogen, which is only 1/8 of the mass of water mined. Due to these challenges, a preliminary analysis of alternative propellant nuclear thermal propulsion (A-NTP) expander cycle engines was made. A-NTP engine models that produced 25 000 lbf of thrust, which is comparable to the baseline hydrogen NTP engines, were constructed in Simulink for preliminary analysis, which yielded an Isp of 320.4 s for water and 381.6 s for ammonia. Although this Isp is lower than the most efficient chemical engines, since water and ammonia are used directly and are stored as such, a propellant tank volume decrease of up to 76.1% for water and 69.5% for ammonia is possible. This will decrease the number of launches, given that the tanks are not fully tanked at time of launch and lunar resources are used to fill the tanks completely.