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.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
Mar 2026
Jan 2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
March 2026
Nuclear Technology
February 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
April 2026
Latest News
NN Asks: What hurdles stand in the way of nuclear power’s global expansion?
Jake Jurewicz
Nuclear technology is mature. It provides firm power at scale with minimal externalities and has done so for decades. The core problem isn’t about the technology—it is how the plants are built. Nuclear construction has a well-documented history of cost and schedule overruns. Previous nuclear plants often spent more than twice what was first budgeted, making nuclear among the power technologies with the largest average cost overruns worldwide.
Recent projects illustrate how severe the problem can be. In South Carolina, the V.C. Summer nuclear expansion saw projected costs rise from roughly $10 billion to more than $25 billion before the project was abandoned in 2017, by which time more than $9 billion had already been spent and customers were stuck paying for a site they have yet to benefit from.
James Corson, Alice Chung, Steven Muller
Nuclear Technology | Volume 210 | Number 2 | February 2024 | Pages 261-268
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2023.2181042
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper presents the Fuel Analysis under Steady-state and Transient (FAST) code contribution to the P2M Simulation Exercise on past fuel melting irradiation experiments organized within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development/Nuclear Energy Agency’s Framework for Irradiated Experiments (FIDES). The benchmark consists of comparisons to two power ramps (xM-3 and HBC-4) that experienced fuel centerline melting. In general, FAST accurately captured the behavior of the fuel rods during the tests, though there are some notable discrepancies between the FAST results and the cladding elongation and fission gas release during the xM-3 power ramp.
