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Division Spotlight
Nuclear Criticality Safety
NCSD provides communication among nuclear criticality safety professionals through the development of standards, the evolution of training methods and materials, the presentation of technical data and procedures, and the creation of specialty publications. In these ways, the division furthers the exchange of technical information on nuclear criticality safety with the ultimate goal of promoting the safe handling of fissionable materials outside reactors.
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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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.
Christian Petrie, Niyanth Sridharan (ORNL), Curtis Frederick, Travis McFalls, Sudarsanam Suresh Babu (Univ of Tennessee), Adam Hehr, Mark Norfolk (Fabrisonic LLC), John Sheridan (Sheridan Solutions LLC)
Proceedings | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technolgies (NPIC&HMIT 2019) | Orlando, FL, February 9-14, 2019 | Pages 459-468
Qualification and commercialization of new nuclear fuels and materials requires a comprehensive set of data regarding behavior under irradiation. There are currently very limited options for in-situ monitoring of material evolution during irradiation due to the extremely harsh environment (i.e., high temperatures and intense radiation) of materials test reactors. This paper describes work being performed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to embed metal-coated fiber-optic sensors into in-core irradiation experiments to enable measurement of radial dimensional changes and spatially distributed temperature and strain. Some critical issues that must be addressed before embedded fiber optics can be deployed in-core include (1) embedding of metal-coated fibers without failure or prohibitively large signal attenuation, (2) embedding in curved channels to allow for radial dimensional measurements, and (3) demonstrating that embedded fibers can survive the large stresses that result from differential thermal expansion between the glass fiber and the surrounding metal matrix. This work shows how optical fibers have been successfully embedded in aluminum and copper alloys in both straight and curved channels with various bend radii. The embedded fibers have also survived heating to temperatures of 500°C and cooling to room temperature. This paper presents some of the experimental results including measured light attenuation resulting from embedding with and without bends and high-temperature testing.