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
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
Dec 2025
Jul 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
January 2026
Nuclear Technology
December 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
November 2025
Latest News
AI at work: Southern Nuclear’s adoption of Copilot agents drives fleet forward
Southern Nuclear is leading the charge in artificial intelligence integration, with employee-developed applications driving efficiencies in maintenance, operations, safety, and performance.
The tools span all roles within the company, with thousands of documented uses throughout the fleet, including improved maintenance efficiency, risk awareness in maintenance activities, and better-informed decision-making. The data-intensive process of preparing for and executing maintenance operations is streamlined by leveraging AI to put the right information at the fingertips for maintenance leaders, planners, schedulers, engineers, and technicians.
Grégory Perret, Ivor David Clifford, Diego Mora Mendez
Nuclear Technology | Volume 211 | Number 12 | December 2025 | Pages 2929-2946
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2025.2521590
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Pressurized thermal shock following a loss-of-coolant accidental scenario has been recognized as a safety concern for the integrity of the reactor pressure vessel since the 1980s. In the context of the recent APAL (Advanced PTS Analysis for LTO) European project, the safety analysis, including coupled thermal hydraulics (TH) and fracture mechanics analyses, has been upgraded to include uncertainty quantification. This paper presents the results obtained by the Paul Scherrer Institute in which the TRACE and FAVOR codes were used. TH uncertainties were estimated and propagated in one-dimensional fracture mechanics models to yield a 95%/95% lower tolerance bound for the maximum allowable adjusted reference temperature. The results are compared for several scenarios (fracture type, fracture criteria, with and without residual stresses) with a conservative base case and a best-estimate case. A sensitivity analysis finally helped determine the most relevant TH uncertain parameters.