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
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Jan 2025
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Nuclear Science and Engineering
February 2025
Nuclear Technology
January 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Is waste really waste?
Tim Tinsley
I’ve been reflecting on the recent American Nuclear Society Winter Conference and Expo, where I enjoyed the discussion on recycling used nuclear fuel to recover valuable minerals or products for future applications. I have spent more than 30 years focusing on dissolving and separating nuclear material, so it was refreshing to hear the case for new applications being made. However, I feel that these discussions could go further still.
Radiation is energy, something that our society seems to have an endless need for. A nuclear power station produces a lot of radiation that is mostly discarded. But once fuel has been used, it still produces significant levels of radiation and heat energy. The associated storage, processing, and eventual disposal of this used fuel requires careful management and investment to protect systems and people from the radiation. Should we really disregard—and discard—this energy source, along with all the valuable minerals in the used fuel, when we could instead use it to deliver significant value to society?
Ville Valtavirta, Tuomas Viitanen, Jaakko Leppänen
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 177 | Number 2 | June 2014 | Pages 193-202
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE13-3
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper describes the built-in calculation routines in the reactor physics code Serpent 2 that provide a novel method for solving the coupled problem of the power distribution, temperature distribution, and material property distributions in nuclear fuel elements. All of the coupled distributions are solved during a single simulation with no coupling to external codes. The temperature feedback system consists of three separate built-in parts: an explicit treatment of the thermal motion of target nuclides during the transport calculation, an internal analytic radial temperature profile solver, and internal material property correlations. The internal structure and couplings of the calculation routines are described in detail, after which the results of an assembly-level problem are presented to demonstrate the capabilities and functionality of the system.
