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
Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
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.
G. Ivan Maldonado, Paul J. Turinsky, David J. Kropaczek,Geoffrey T. Parks
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 121 | Number 2 | October 1995 | Pages 312-325
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE95-A28567
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The computer code FORMOSA-P (Fuel Optimization for Reloads Multiple Objectives by Simulated Annealing—PWR) has been developed to address pressurized water reactor (PWR) in-core nuclear fuel management optimization. Until recently, the optimization objectives available to the user included minimization of relative power peaking throughout the cycle, maximization of the end-of-cycle reactivity, and maximization of region-average discharge burnup. In addition, during an optimization, various core attributes (including the preceding objectives) can be optionally activated as constraints via penalty functions or to directly reject sampled loading patterns that violate established design limits. The underlying theoretical framework that enables the accurate and efficient calculation of objective and constraint values within the FORMOSA-P code is its higher order, nodal generalized perturbation theory (GPT) neutronics model. The utility of the FORMOSA-P code has been extended to include a traditionally out-of-core decision variable, namely, the fresh (i.e., feed) reload fuel enrichment. This is accomplished by formulating the feed enrichment as a GPT variable that can be adjusted concurrently with changes in the core loading pattern to enforce a target cycle length. This provides a reload designer with the capability to minimize feed enrichment during an in-core optimization while enforcing all other constraints (e.g., power peaking limit, cycle energy requirement, degree of eighth-core power tilt, discharge burnup limit, and moderator temperature coefficient limit).