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
Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
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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Jun 2025
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Nuclear Science and Engineering
July 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
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.
Ricardo Garcia, Cristina Corrales, Mateo Ramos (Tecnatom SA)
Proceedings | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technolgies (NPIC&HMIT 2019) | Orlando, FL, February 9-14, 2019 | Pages 150-157
The Spanish Centralized Interim Storage facility will provide temporary storage for all spent fuel and high-level waste from Spanish nuclear power plants. The most critical process is performed in the hot cell, where the casks of spent fuel are unloaded and encapsulated into canisters. To validate the control system design and the operation of the equipment used in the unloading process, Tecnatom has developed an engineering simulator. The simulator has both the Human Machine Interface (HMI) for the remote operation of the equipment replicating the one of the control systems, as well as a virtual reality environment of the hot cell. A series of functionalities have been introduced to analyze the operation an detect aspects to be improved in the design. Thanks to this, the HMI has been properly redesigned, potential issues of the control system has been early detected, and a better understanding of the system achieved. In addition, the virtual reality environment of the hot cell helps decision-making for other aspects of the design, such as the location of video cameras. Finally, the simulator can be used in the future as a training platform and be the basis of a digital twin of the facility.
