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Division Spotlight
Young Members Group
The Young Members Group works to encourage and enable all young professional members to be actively involved in the efforts and endeavors of the Society at all levels (Professional Divisions, ANS Governance, Local Sections, etc.) as they transition from the role of a student to the role of a professional. It sponsors non-technical workshops and meetings that provide professional development and networking opportunities for young professionals, collaborates with other Divisions and Groups in developing technical and non-technical content for topical and national meetings, encourages its members to participate in the activities of the Groups and Divisions that are closely related to their professional interests as well as in their local sections, introduces young members to the rules and governance structure of the Society, and nominates young professionals for awards and leadership opportunities available to members.
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!
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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Norway’s Halden reactor takes first step toward decommissioning
The government of Norway has granted the transfer of the Halden research reactor from the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) to the state agency Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning (NND). The 25-MWt Halden boiling water reactor operated from 1958 to 2018 and was used in the research of nuclear fuel, reactor internals, plant procedures and monitoring, and human factors.
H. Ludewig, S. Mughabghab, O. Lazareth, K. Perkins, E. Schmidt, J.R. Powell
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 20 | Number 4 | December 1991 | Pages 747-752
Space Nuclear Power/Propulsion | doi.org/10.13182/FST91-A11946931
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NEP) unit capable of propelling a manned vehicle to MARS will be required to have a value of α (kg/kWe) which is less than five. In order to meet this goal the reactor mass, and thus its contribution to the value of α will have to be minimized. In this paper a candidate for such a reactor is described. It consists of a gas cooled Particle Bed Reactor (PBR), with specially chosen materials which allow it to operate at an exit temperature of approximately 2000 K. One of the unique features of a PBR is the direct cooling of particulate fuel by the working fluid. This feature allows for high power densities, highest possible gas exit temperatures, for a given fuel temperature and because of the thin particle bed a low pressure drop. The PBR's described in this paper will have a ceramic moderator (Be2C), ZrC coated fuel particles and a carbon/carbon hot frit. All the reactors will be designed with sufficient fissile loading to operate at full power for seven years. The burn up possible with particulate fuel is approximately 30%-50%. These reactor designs achieve a value of α less than unity in the power range of interest (5 MWe).
