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
Education, Training & Workforce Development
The Education, Training & Workforce Development Division provides communication among the academic, industrial, and governmental communities through the exchange of views and information on matters related to education, training and workforce development in nuclear and radiological science, engineering, and technology. Industry leaders, education and training professionals, and interested students work together through Society-sponsored meetings and publications, to enrich their professional development, to educate the general public, and to advance nuclear and radiological science and engineering.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Winter Conference and Expo
November 17–21, 2024
Orlando, FL|Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld
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 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
September 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
August 2024
Latest News
Nuclear new build procurement considerations
It may seem counterintuitive, but the best time to enhance the ability to support operations and maintenance for a new plant is before construction starts. This is one of many lessons learned by the currently operating nuclear fleet. As construction and startup of many nuclear facilities was completed, it quickly became evident that the ability to efficiently support operations and maintenance was limited. Most of the information necessary to establish and manage procurement of spare and replacement items, maintenance, and configuration of the facilities was unavailable and had to be gathered on a case-by-case, “on-demand” basis. Absence of necessary information and the associated challenges resulted in the need for staff augmentation and multiyear-long projects to develop equipment bills of material and maintenance programs and to perform technical evaluations for the huge quantities of spare and replacement items being requested.
James E. Ayer, Donald R. Schmitt
Nuclear Technology | Volume 27 | Number 3 | November 1975 | Pages 442-448
Technical Paper | Instrument | doi.org/10.13182/NT75-A24317
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A gamma-ray absorptometer system used to determine the density distribution in nuclear fuel rods was designed, assembled, and operated. The absorptometer emits a collimated beam from an irradiated thulium source that is transmitted through a rotating fuel rod. The photons in the attenuated beam are counted and the counts are recorded on teletype tape. The tape output for each fuel rod inspected is used to punch counting data into card form. Data cards from a series of fuel rods are positioned in a FORTRAN-language source program. A computer then calculates and prints such information as the standard deviation due to counting and to density variations; the maximum, minimum, and average counts; and the density equivalent of each count. Calculated density is then programmed into an x-y plotter and displayed versus rod length. The system was found to be sensitive to changes of <1% of theoretical density with 95% confidence of detecting changes >2% of theoretical. The design objectives of compactness, ease of operating, and amenability to use of modern computational techniques were achieved.