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
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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!
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Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2024
Nuclear Technology
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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.
Bhavya Lal, Jericho Locke
Nuclear Technology | Volume 207 | Number 6 | June 2021 | Pages 836-843
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2020.1847565
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Whether to use highly enriched uranium (HEU) or low-enriched uranium (LEU) in space reactors is a highly debated topic. Most analyses focus on performance as the principal determinant of use, where HEU has inherent advantages. This paper identifies seven dimensions along which rigorous comparisons must be made to evaluate whether HEU or LEU is an appropriate enrichment level for space nuclear systems. These dimensions are performance, safety, security and nonproliferation, timeliness of a system to come to fruition, fuel availability, cost, and ability to include commercial partners. Our analysis shows that HEU and LEU systems provide different advantages depending on the dimension of interest, and whether the United States continues to use HEU or switches to LEU is ultimately a policy decision, not a technical one.