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Decommissioning & Environmental Sciences
The mission of the Decommissioning and Environmental Sciences (DES) Division is to promote the development and use of those skills and technologies associated with the use of nuclear energy and the optimal management and stewardship of the environment, sustainable development, decommissioning, remediation, reutilization, and long-term surveillance and maintenance of nuclear-related installations, and sites. The target audience for this effort is the membership of the Division, the Society, and the public at large.
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2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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!
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Latest News
Proving DRACO will deliver
The United States is now closer than it has been in over five decades to launching the first nuclear thermal rocket into space, thanks to DRACO—the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Orbit.
Yu-Jen Huang, Keng-Yen Chiang, Song-Nan Tsau, Ming Tong Hsu, Jec-Kong Gone, Bin Kao, Chi-Szu Lee, Shin Chang (AEC)
Proceedings | Pacific Basin Nuclear Conference (2018 PBNC) | San Francisco, CA, September 30-October 4, 2018 | Pages 604-609
Most nuclear power plants (NPPs) built in the early stages were designed to operate at steady full power, known as ‘base-load’ operation. However, more and more nuclear power companies would like to have the flexibility to operate their NPPs depending on the load demand, which means to change how they operate from the base-load mode to flexible mode. Taipower company (TPC), the only utility in Taiwan, submitted an application for operating one reactor unit at a non-rated power level without changing the total rod power burnups in order to extend the operation period before next refueling outage. Since this was the first application, the Taiwan nuclear safety authority, Atomic Energy Council (AEC), thoroughly reviewed the impacts of the strategy by referring to the documents of flexible power operation experiences on nuclear power plants by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the US Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). TPC plans to submit more applications to AEC in the near future. Both regulatory and operating experience feedbacks are important, since which are all good indicators to reflect whether the safety issues involved have been evaluated and/or the corresponding measures have been taken, if necessary.