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
Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
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
July 2025
Nuclear Technology
June 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
ANS announces 2025 Presidential Citations
One of the privileges of being president of the American Nuclear Society is awarding Presidential Citations to individuals who have demonstrated outstanding effort in some manner for the benefit of ANS or the nuclear community at large. Citations are conferred twice each year, at the Annual and Winter Meetings.
ANS President Lisa Marshall has named this season’s recipients, who will receive recognition at the upcoming Annual Conference in Chicago during the Special Session on Tuesday, June 17.
P. Minelli, M. Golay, J. Buongiorno, N. Todreas (MIT)
Proceedings | 2018 International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants (ICAPP 2018) | Charlotte, NC, April 8-11, 2018 | Pages 988-997
The Offshore Floating Nuclear Plant (OFNP) design creatively builds on two established technologies, namely light water reactors (LWRs) and floating oil/gas platforms. Marine siting as well as several design features produce a particularly safe plant. The concept exploits the advances and experience in the construction of large floating structures in the oil/gas offshore industry and naval shipyards to decrease construction time and cost compared to standard nuclear power plants.
This work aims to compare the Net Present Value (NPV) of two different projects, when important uncertainties are taken into account:
- Construction of multiple (up to four) small modularunits (275 MW each)
- Construction of one single unit of equivalent power(1100 MW).
Some of the major sources of uncertainties in large and complex nuclear projects are price of electricity, construction cost, discount rate, years of operation, capacity factor and transportation costs. Such sources of uncertainty are quantified through specification of documented averages and reasonable ranges of variability.
This information is first used to perform a sensitivity analysis which shows that the NPV of an OFNP project is affected most strongly by price of electricity, construction cost and discount rate. Then, all uncertainties are assigned a probability distribution function (pdf) and combined with a Monte Carlo approach to generate a pdf for the NPV of a project.
The results show that construction of four small modular units is the preferred alternative as it is characterized by a higher average and median NPV. Additional qualitative advantages of the smaller modular units include the lower initial capital expenses, hence lower financial risk, and higher project flexibility overall.