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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
2025 ANS Annual Conference
June 15–18, 2025
Chicago, IL|Chicago Marriott 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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Nuclear Science and Engineering
July 2025
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Latest News
High-temperature plumbing and advanced reactors
The use of nuclear fission power and its role in impacting climate change is hotly debated. Fission advocates argue that short-term solutions would involve the rapid deployment of Gen III+ nuclear reactors, like Vogtle-3 and -4, while long-term climate change impact would rely on the creation and implementation of Gen IV reactors, “inherently safe” reactors that use passive laws of physics and chemistry rather than active controls such as valves and pumps to operate safely. While Gen IV reactors vary in many ways, one thing unites nearly all of them: the use of exotic, high-temperature coolants. These fluids, like molten salts and liquid metals, can enable reactor engineers to design much safer nuclear reactors—ultimately because the boiling point of each fluid is extremely high. Fluids that remain liquid over large temperature ranges can provide good heat transfer through many demanding conditions, all with minimal pressurization. Although the most apparent use for these fluids is advanced fission power, they have the potential to be applied to other power generation sources such as fusion, thermal storage, solar, or high-temperature process heat.1–3
Yusuke Ohashi, Masamitsu Shimaike, Takashi Matsumoto, Nobuo Takahashi, Kaoru Yokoyama, Yasuyuki Morimoto
Nuclear Technology | Volume 209 | Number 5 | May 2023 | Pages 777-786
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2022.2145136
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
At the Ningyo-Toge Environmental Engineering Center, technical developments related to uranium refining conversion and enrichment have been completed and decommissioning of these facilities has begun. The error between the quantity of dismantled materials estimated from the facility design drawings and the actual quantity of the dismantled materials was about 1.7% when averaged over the entire facilities already dismantled. Most of the dismantled materials, which have no contamination history and were properly managed, were confirmed to have surface radioactivity concentrations below the detection limit and could be carried out to recyclers as nonradioactive (NR) waste. The dismantled materials that could not be certified as NR needed to be cleared and reused. By evaluating two types of gamma rays of 234mPa from the mockup dismantled objects, it was found that uranium corresponding to a clearance level (1.2 × 102 Bq/kg) could be quantified.
