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Division Spotlight
Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
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!
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Latest News
Smarter waste strategies: Helping deliver on the promise of advanced nuclear
At COP28, held in Dubai in 2023, a clear consensus emerged: Nuclear energy must be a cornerstone of the global clean energy transition. With electricity demand projected to soar as we decarbonize not just power but also industry, transport, and heat, the case for new nuclear is compelling. More than 20 countries committed to tripling global nuclear capacity by 2050. In the United States alone, the Department of Energy forecasts that the country’s current nuclear capacity could more than triple, adding 200 GW of new nuclear to the existing 95 GW by mid-century.
Al-Amin Ahmed Simon, Karishmae Kadrager, Baharceh Badamchi, Harish Subbaraman, Maria Mitkova (Boise State Univ)
Proceedings | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technolgies (NPIC&HMIT 2019) | Orlando, FL, February 9-14, 2019 | Pages 39-48
Temperature sensing is an integral part of any nuclear reactor facilities. However, high radiation and temperature degrade the sensing materials which in turn makes the sensors less reliable. In this paper, chalcogenide glasses are proposed as temperature sensing materials for reactor facilities. Chalcogenide glasses go through amorphous to crystalline phase transformation when heated up to their crystallization temperature. This phase transition changes both the electrical and optical properties of the chalcogenide glasses. They are amorphous in nature and radiation hard due to their specific electronic structure and high defect density. Difference in reflected power at 1310 nm and 1550 nm wavelengths as a function of temperature, from chalcogenide glass-silica interface can be utilized to measure temperature and this effect is applied in the device presented in this paper. A review of the radiation hardness and a study of thermally induced change in optical properties of Ge-containing chalcogenide glasses along with a device architecture are presented as a method for temperature monitoring in nuclear facilities.