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
Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
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
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.
G. Vendryes
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 90 | Number 4 | August 1985 | Pages 427-430
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE85-A18490
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The possibilities of breeding in liquid-metal fast breeder reactors (LMFBRs) and light water reactors (LWRs) are compared in two ways. The feasibility of breeding has been demonstrated in the Phénix reactor with a measured gain of 0.14. The gain in Superphénix will amount to ∼ 0.20. The studies show that while maintaining the performance of commercial reactors their breeding gain can be further increased either by the concept of heterogeneous cores or by using carbide or nitride fuel (breeding gain ∼ 0.35). Recently, the old idea of breeding in advanced pressurized water reactors (PWRs) has been taken up again with the objective of attaining a gain of 0.05. Unfortunately, these objectives had to be limited to a conversion ratio of 0.9 for safety reasons, and it is not certain whether operation will be rewarding economically. The strategy of substituting PWRs is examined using the French example. By gradually introducing LMFBRs, the cumulated uranium supplies in France can be kept within reasonable limits, which means that they attain three to jour times the home resources. This is not possible with advanced LWRs, which can be considered only as a possible backup solution for plutonium recycling into PWRs.