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
Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Jun 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2025
Nuclear Technology
July 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Nuclear fuel cycle reimagined: Powering the next frontiers from nuclear waste
In the fall of 2023, a small Zeno Power team accomplished a major feat: they demonstrated the first strontium-90 heat source in decades—and the first-ever by a commercial company.
Zeno Power worked with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to fabricate and validate this Z1 heat source design at the lab’s Radiochemical Processing Laboratory. The Z1 demonstration heralded renewed interest in developing radioisotope power system (RPS) technology. In early 2025, the heat source was disassembled, and the Sr-90 was returned to the U.S. Department of Energy for continued use.
Songling Liu, Huai-En Hsieh, Shiqi Wang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 211 | Number 2 | February 2025 | Pages 200-213
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2024.2323240
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In-vessel retention through external reactor vessel cooling (IVR-ERVC) is a strategy used to respond to nuclear reactor accidents. One of the key performance indicators determining its feasibility is critical heat flux (CHF). Our focus is on simulating real-world scenarios through surface pool boiling to improve the implementation of the IVR-ERVC strategy with hybrid nanofluids. Two groups of TiO2/COOH-CNTs hybrid nanofluids were prepared: group 1 with different concentrations at the same proportion and group 2 with different proportions at the same total concentration.
Researchers compared the improvement of the two groups’ CHF and heat transfer coefficient (HTC), and analyzed the potential mechanism of heat transfer enhancement through roughness of surface, hydrophilicity, and scanning electron microscopy observations. The results showed that a mass concentration of 8 mg:8 mg per liter exhibited the best heat transfer performance, with a CHF enhancement up to 28.21% and an improvement in HTC as well. Meanwhile, correlations between alterations in surface roughness, hydrophilicity, and enhancements in CHF were observed. Finally, by detecting the deposition surface, the possible mechanism of TiO2/COOH-CNTs hybrid nanofluids in enhancing heat transfer was inferred.
