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
Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
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
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
TerraPower begins U.K. regulatory approval process
Seattle-based TerraPower signaled its interest this week in building its Natrium small modular reactor in the United Kingdom, the company announced.
TerraPower sent a letter to the U.K.’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, formally establishing its intention to enter the U.K. generic design assessment (GDA) process. This is TerraPower’s first step in deployment of its Natrium technology—a 345-MW sodium fast reactor coupled with a molten salt energy storage unit—on the international stage.
A.C. Klein, R.A. Pawlowski, H.H. Lee
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 20 | Number 4 | December 1991 | Pages 759-766
Space Nuclear Power/Propulsion | doi.org/10.13182/FST91-A11946933
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Incore thermionic space reactor design concepts which operate at a nominal power output range of between 20 and 50 kWe are described. Details of the neutronic, thermionic, thermal, and shielding performance are presented. These moderated reactor concepts use enriched uranium dioxide fuel, zirconium hydride moderator, reinforced tungsten emitters, niobium collectors, alumina insulators, and sodium-potassium coolant in a long, single cell configuration. Due to the strong absorption of thermal neutrons by natural tungsten, and the large amount of that material within the reactor core, two options for the reactor are considered. The first uses enriched tungsten (greater than 70 weight percent W-184) emitters and only thermionic fuel elements (TFEs) in the core to achieve criticality and sufficient lifetime. The second option uses natural tungsten and driver fuel elements in addition to the TFEs in the core. An overall systems design code has been developed to model advanced incore thermionic energy conversion based nuclear reactor systems for space applications. The code modules include neutronics and core criticality, a thermionic fuel element performance module with integral thermal hydraulic calculation capability, a radiation shielding module, and a module for waste heat rejection. Coupled thermal hydraulic and thermionic performance calculations are presented. The model includes the effects of radiation and conductive heat transfer as well as electron cooling of the emitter, and the resistive lead losses on long emitter TFE concepts. Radiation shielding design and overall system heat rejection analyses are also presented.