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
Mathematics & Computation
Division members promote the advancement of mathematical and computational methods for solving problems arising in all disciplines encompassed by the Society. They place particular emphasis on numerical techniques for efficient computer applications to aid in the dissemination, integration, and proper use of computer codes, including preparation of computational benchmark and development of standards for computing practices, and to encourage the development on new computer codes and broaden their use.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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
May 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Oklo to collaborate with Atomic Alchemy on isotope production
Fast reactor developer Oklo, which recently went public on the New York Stock Exchange, announced on May 13 that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Atomic Alchemy to cooperate on the production of radioisotopes for medical, energy, industry, and science applications.
Dakota J. Allen, Stuart R. Blair, Marshall G. Millett, Martin E. Nelson
Nuclear Technology | Volume 205 | Number 6 | June 2019 | Pages 755-765
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2018.1524228
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This project investigated the use of uranium nitride (UN) and uranium carbide (UC) reactor fuel and compared their performance to uranium oxide (UO2) in a nuclear reactor for space-based applications. As a baseline for analysis, the Prometheus Project reference reactor module was considered: a gas-cooled fast reactor using highly enriched UO2 fuel with 1 MW of thermal power output and a 15-year core life. An estimate of the temperature feedback effect on reactivity was made for each fuel type at the beginning, middle, and end of core life; results for each fuel were compared. This analysis indicates that UN-fueled reactors may exhibit a stabilizing negative reactivity feedback for increasing temperatures and that this benefit persists in the face of fuel composition changes over core life. The benefit of increased uranium loading density was assessed through a quantitative estimate of overall core weight for each fuel. It was found that weight savings on the order of 1000 kg can be realized for a reactor of this size by using either UC or UN rather than UO2.