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
Apr 2026
Jan 2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2026
Nuclear Technology
March 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
A year in orbit: ISS deployment tests radiation detectors for future space missions
The predawn darkness on a cool Florida night was shattered by the ignition of nine Merlin engines on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The thrust of the engines shook the ground miles away. From a distance, the rocket appeared to slowly rise above the horizon. For the cargo onboard, the launch was anything but gentle, as the ignition of liquid oxygen generated more than 1.5 million pounds of force. After the rocket had been out of sight for several minutes, the booster dramatically returned to Earth with several sonic booms in a captivating show of engineering designed to make space travel less expensive and more sustainable.
Christopher Edwards, Ralph C. Smith, John Mattingly, Alyson G. Wilson
Nuclear Technology | Volume 211 | Number 11 | November 2025 | Pages 2832-2845
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2025.2462370
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The rapid localization of radioactive material in an urban environment is of critical importance to secure radiological sources and prevent radiological attacks. We consider the inverse problem of inferring the three-dimensional location of stationary and moving radiation sources given a set of measurements from an array of radiation sensors. A feedforward neural network is employed to quickly infer the location of the radioactive source. We optimize the weights of the neural network using Nadam gradient-based optimization. This method of source localization lacks the prediction intervals given by other techniques, such as Bayesian inference, but it is extremely fast, so it enables real-time predictions. We utilize this advantage to track the position of a moving radioactive source within a simulated urban environment.