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
Materials Science & Technology
The objectives of MSTD are: promote the advancement of materials science in Nuclear Science Technology; support the multidisciplines which constitute it; encourage research by providing a forum for the presentation, exchange, and documentation of relevant information; promote the interaction and communication among its members; and recognize and reward its members for significant contributions to the field of materials science in nuclear technology.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Jun 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
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.
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.