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Division Spotlight
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.
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.
Gary Johnson (Private Consultant)
Proceedings | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technolgies (NPIC&HMIT 2019) | Orlando, FL, February 9-14, 2019 | Pages 1102-1113
In January 2007 the World Nuclear Association (WNA) established the Cooperation in Reactor Design Evaluation and Licensing Working Group (CORDEL) with the aim of stimulating a dialogue between the nuclear industry and nuclear regulators on the benefits and means of achieving a worldwide convergence of safety standards for reactor designs. CORDEL is comprised of several technical working groups including the Digital Instrumentation and Control Task Force (DICTF). Soon after CORDEL was established, the DICTF identified safety classification as a topic where a better understanding of the regulatory practices in various countries could improve the nuclear industries’ ability to license new nuclear power plant designs in various countries. One of the issues identified was the need to understand inconsistencies between the safety requirements established by international and national codes and standards. The first step in this effort was to examine the formally defined terminology that the various organizations use to define five key concepts: Defense-in-depth and diversity, Separation, Redundancy, Reliability, and Spurious activation. This paper summarizes the approach and conclusions of this study. We found important inconsistencies both between the terms that various organizations use for the above key concepts and the definitions of the key concepts themselves. We also found, however, that some of the existing definitions encompass the ideas of all of the organizations studied. Therefore, we believe that it is possible to establish common terms and definitions for the five concepts. This work may also represent a prototype methodology for harmonizing terms and definitions used for other key concepts.