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
Isotopes & Radiation
Members are devoted to applying nuclear science and engineering technologies involving isotopes, radiation applications, and associated equipment in scientific research, development, and industrial processes. Their interests lie primarily in education, industrial uses, biology, medicine, and health physics. Division committees include Analytical Applications of Isotopes and Radiation, Biology and Medicine, Radiation Applications, Radiation Sources and Detection, and Thermal Power Sources.
Meeting Spotlight
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Apr 2024
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Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
College students help develop waste-measuring device at Hanford
A partnership between Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) and Washington State University has resulted in the development of a device to measure radioactive and chemical tank waste at the Hanford Site. WRPS is the contractor at Hanford for the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management.
Jiaji He, Zach Hileman, Daniel Homa, Anbo Wang, Gary Pickrell (Virginia Tech), Alexander D. Braatz (ORNL), Brian Risch (Prysmian Group)
Proceedings | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technolgies (NPIC&HMIT 2019) | Orlando, FL, February 9-14, 2019 | Pages 238-245
Continuous and real time health monitoring of structural components has become of paramount importance in nuclear facilities to proactively address potential failures that result in the shutdown of operation and/or health and environmental. Subsequently, there has been an intense interest in fiber optic sensing technologies because of their relative tolerance to radiation exposure and elevated temperatures. Nonetheless, challenges remain prevalent with respect to reliability and cost. To address these concerns, while also taking advantage of the fiber optic materials, an acoustic based sensing technique has been developed to monitor phenomena such as temperature to better evaluate the aging and degradation of critical structures such as nuclear containment components, cable insulation, and metal pressure boundaries. Recently, a unique single mode acoustic waveguide design with strong power confinement and relatively low loss was demonstrated in an all-silica acoustic fiber. The “suspended core” acoustic waveguide consists of a pure silica glass core with an inner air cladding and outer silica cladding. In addition, a temperature sensor was demonstrated by monitoring the time of flight in the suspended core. The first-of-its-kind acoustic waveguide structure and sensor represents the first step in the development of a low-cost, reliable sensing system for the deployment of the fiber sensor arrays for the next generation of 3D network monitoring solutions.