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
Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
Meeting Spotlight
Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2025)
February 3–6, 2025
Amelia Island, FL|Omni Amelia Island Resort
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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Latest News
Biden executive order to facilitate AI data center power
As demand for artificial intelligence and data centers grows, President Biden issued an executive order yesterday aimed to ensure clean-energy power supply for the technology.
Scott M. Whitney, Steven Biegalski, Bruce Buchholz
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 157 | Number 2 | October 2007 | Pages 200-209
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE07-A2722
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An extensive study was conducted to determine isotopic ratios of nuclides in spent fuel that may be utilized to reveal historical characteristics of a nuclear reactor cycle. This forensic information is important to determine the origin of unknown nuclear waste. The distribution of isotopes in waste products provides information about a nuclear fuel cycle, even when the isotopes of uranium and plutonium are removed through chemical processing. Several different reactor cycles of the pressurized water reactor, boiling water reactor, Canada deuterium uranium reactor, and liquid-metal fast breeder reactor were simulated for this work with the ORIGEN-ARP and ORIGEN2.2 codes. The spent-fuel nuclide concentrations of these reactors were analyzed to find the most informative isotopic ratios indicative of irradiation cycle length and reactor design. Special focus was given to long-lived and stable fission products that would be present many years after their creation. For such nuclides, mass spectrometry analysis methods often have better detection limits than classic gamma-ray spectroscopy. The isotopic ratios 151Sm/146Sm, 149Sm/146Sm, and 244Cm/246Cm were found to be good indicators of fuel cycle length and are well suited for analysis by accelerator mass spectroscopy.