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
Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
Meeting Spotlight
ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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
Mar 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2025
Nuclear Technology
April 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
El Salvador: Looking to nuclear
In 2022, El Salvador’s leadership decided to expand its modest, mostly hydro- and geothermal-based electricity system, which is supported by expensive imported natural gas and diesel generation. They chose to use advanced nuclear reactors, preferably fueled by thorium-based fuels, to power their civilian efforts. The choice of thorium was made to inform the world that the reactor program was for civilian purposes only, and so they chose a fuel that was plentiful, easy to source and work with, and not a proliferation risk.
2020 ANS Virtual Winter Meeting Plenary Session Speaker
Dr. Kathryn McCarthy is Associate Laboratory Director, Fusion and Fission Energy and Science, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Her prior positions incude Vice-President, Science & Technology, and Laboratory Director for Canadian Nuclear Laboratories, Director of Domestic Programs for Nuclear Science and Technology (NS&T) at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Director of the Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program Technical Integration Office, Deputy Associate Laboratory Director for NS&T, National Technical Director for the Systems Analysis Campaign for the DOE Fuel Cycle R&D Program. Dr. McCarthy was involved in various other nuclear fission and fusion programs before that; she was employed at the INL for 25 years. She was a Guest Scientist at the Kernforschungszentrum in Karlsruhe, Germany in 1989, and worked in the Soviet Union with the Department of Energy US/USSR Young Scientist Program (1989-1990), at the Efremov and Kurchatov Institutes in Russia, and the Latvian Academy of Science in Latvia.
Dr. McCarthy is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and of the American Nuclear Society (ANS), and has held multiple ANS offices at the local and national level. Her awards include the an ANS Presidential citation in 2015 for “Leadership and guidance of the Light Water Reactor Sustainability effort….that has helped set the stage for US power companies to be able to make informed decisions regarding subsequent license renewal for their operating nuclear units…,” 2011 Nuclear Energy Advocate of the Year Award (given by the Partnership for Science and Technology), the 2011 Girl Scouts of Silver Sage Women of Today and Tomorrow Award, an American Nuclear Society Presidential Citation in 2007 for “…outstanding service to the ANS,” the 2000 ANS Women's Achievement Award, 1996 International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor U.S. Home Team Leadership Award, and the 1994 David Rose Award for Excellence in Fusion Engineering.
Education
B. S. in nuclear engineering from the University of Arizona
M.S. and Ph.D. in nuclear engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles
Last modified October 26, 2020, 9:33am EDT
