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
Apr 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2025
Nuclear Technology
April 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
General Kenneth Nichols and the Manhattan Project
Nichols
The Oak Ridger has published the latest in a series of articles about General Kenneth D. Nichols, the Manhattan Project, and the 1954 Atomic Energy Act. The series has been produced by Nichols’ grandniece Barbara Rogers Scollin and Oak Ridge (Tenn.) city historian David Ray Smith. Gen. Nichols (1907–2000) was the district engineer for the Manhattan Engineer District during the Manhattan Project.
As Smith and Scollin explain, Nichols “had supervision of the research and development connected with, and the design, construction, and operation of, all plants required to produce plutonium-239 and uranium-235, including the construction of the towns of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Richland, Washington. The responsibility of his position was massive as he oversaw a workforce of both military and civilian personnel of approximately 125,000; his Oak Ridge office became the center of the wartime atomic energy’s activities.”
Haiying Fu, Takuya Nagasaka, Teruya Tanaka, Akio Sagara, Hisashi Serizawa, Yuhki Satou
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 72 | Number 4 | November 2017 | Pages 680-685
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1347469
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Dissimilar-metals joints between vanadium alloy NIFS-HEAT-2 (NH2) and nickel alloy Hastelloy X (HX) were developed by electron beam welding (EBW). If without filler, the joint fractured several minutes after the welding due to hard and brittle intermetallics formed in the weld metal (WM). Pure Ni filler with 0.2–1.0 mm in thickness decreased the content of intermetallics and eliminate hardening in the WM. However, there is always a hardening interlayer estimated as Ni2V and σ intermetallics, existed with thickness of 50 µm between NH2 base metal (BM) and WM. The hardening cannot be eliminated by annealing at high solution temperature of 1373 K. Aging at 723–973 K for 100 h further increased the hardening not only in the hardening interlayer but also in the WM. Pure Cu filler was also investigated. For the joint with 0.5 mm thick Cu filler, there are still hardening interlayer and hardening areas in the WM due to Ni2V and σ intermetallics. However, by increasing the Cu filler to 1 mm thick, the hardening interlayer disappeared by preventing mixture of NH2 and HX to form intermetallics. In this case, Charpy impact property of the joint with 1 mm thick Cu is much improved with ductile-to-brittle transition temperature (DBTT) less than 77 K. Even after thermal aging at 973 K for 100 h, the impact property did not degrade.