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.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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
Aug 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
September 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
August 2025
Latest News
DOE-NE’s newest fuel consortium includes defense from antitrust laws
The Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy is setting up a nuclear fuel Defense Production Act Consortium that will seek voluntary agreements with interested companies “to increase fuel availability, provide more access to reliable power, and end America’s reliance on foreign sources of enriched uranium and critical materials needed to power the nation’s nuclear renaissance.” According to an August 22 DOE press release, the plan invokes the Defense Production Act (DPA) to give consortium members “defense from antitrust laws when certain criteria are met” and “allow industry consultation to develop plans of action.” DOE-NE is looking for interested companies to join the consortium ahead of its first meeting, scheduled for October 14.
James A. Smith, Vivek Agarwal (INL)
Proceedings | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technolgies (NPIC&HMIT 2019) | Orlando, FL, February 9-14, 2019 | Pages 1311-1318
Two challenges to increase the efficiency in nuclear energy production are the ability to enhance the fundamental understanding of reactor operation and developing improved approaches for diagnostic and prognostic techniques. Traditionally, radiation-hardened sensors and their associated signal-conditioning electronics are used to study key process parameters inside the nuclear reactor core. However, traditional approaches have limitations such as the requirement of at least two wires to provide power, communicating information from inside to outside the nuclear reactor vessel, and the degradation of the performance of sensors along with their instrumentation/electronics over time. These limitations can have an adverse effect on measurement accuracy and model predictions. Conventional process sensors generally monitor quasi-static variations and tend to filter dynamic events that may be critical to diagnosing issues. A new approach to process monitoring is being developed to address some of the shortcomings of traditional process monitoring techniques in nuclear reactors. This paper describes a methodology that uses intrinsic reactor processes, an Acoustic Measurement Infrastructure and a novel data processing method to determine abnormal reactor operation. The resulting data from the Advanced Test Reactor is used to identify reactor state changes which will enable diagnostic and prognostic capabilities. The use of intrinsic reactor processes and the acoustic transmission of signals for process monitoring address the limitations of traditional process sensing.