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
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
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
June 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
May 2025
Latest News
Argonne’s METL gears up to test more sodium fast reactor components
Argonne National Laboratory has successfully swapped out an aging cold trap in the sodium test loop called METL (Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop), the Department of Energy announced April 23. The upgrade is the first of its kind in the United States in more than 30 years, according to the DOE, and will help test components and operations for the sodium-cooled fast reactors being developed now.
Alberto Previti, Alberto Brighenti, Damien Raynaud, Barbara Vezzoni
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 197 | Number 9 | September 2023 | Pages 2459-2483
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2023.2189535
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The design and safety assessment of nuclear reactors rely on a combination of calculations performed by several simulation packages, each dedicated to modeling a specific ensemble of phenomena. To treat the complexity of the physical problem, appropriate software architectures and methodologies to trace and implement user needs are of paramount importance to fulfill the needs of all the possible stakeholders. This work proposes a systematic approach to break the complexity of constructing a lattice neutronics platform that is one of the simulation packages needed in nuclear reactor analysis. After reviewing the state of the art of current methods applied in reactor physics engineering, the work concentrates on identifying the applicable software architecture strategies and on discussing advantages and drawbacks. While the specific target is the neutronics code APOLLO3®, the subsequent categorization and analysis of user needs written in the form of formal requirements allow for defining a unified approach to design an effective, industrial-grade, and future-proof calculation platform. Subsequent presentation of typical use cases involved in developing deterministic lattice calculation schemes allows linking the formal definition of use cases and software architecture with the actual application to a specific calculation setting. This work aims, therefore, at proposing an innovative viewpoint to tackle large software developments applicable in the nuclear industry. The research presented in this paper has been developed at Framatome in the context of the lattice neutronics work package of the H2020 CAMIVVER project.