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
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
Mar 2025
Jul 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
March 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
February 2025
Latest News
ARG-US Remote Monitoring Systems: Use Cases and Applications in Nuclear Facilities and During Transportation
As highlighted in the Spring 2024 issue of Radwaste Solutions, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory are developing and deploying ARG-US—meaning “Watchful Guardian”—remote monitoring systems technologies to enhance the safety, security, and safeguards (3S) of packages of nuclear and other radioactive material during storage, transportation, and disposal.
Tri Nguyen, Elia Merzari
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 197 | Number 10 | October 2023 | Pages 2634-2659
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2023.2186200
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The design of advanced nuclear reactors [Generation IV (Gen IV)] involves an array of challenging fluid-flow issues that affect its safety and performance. Given that Gen IV designs have improved passive safety features, the downcomer plays a crucial role in loss-of-power scenarios. Fluid-flow behavior in the downcomer can involve forced to mixed to natural convection, and characterizing the heat transfer for these changing regimes is a daunting challenge. The creation of a high-resolution heat transfer numerical database can potentially support the development of precise and affordable reduced-resolution heat transfer models. These models can be designed based on a multiscale hierarchy developed as part of the recently U.S. Department of Energy–funded Center of Excellence for Thermal Fluids Applications in Nuclear Energy, which can help address industrial-driven issues associated with the heat transfer behavior of advanced reactors. In this paper, the downcomer is simplified to heated parallel plates, and high Prandtl number fluid (FLiBe) is considered for all simulations. The calculations are performed for a wide range of Richardson numbers from 0 to 400 at two different FLiBe Prandtl numbers (12 and 24), which result in 40 simulated cases in total. Time-averaged and time series statistics, as well as Nusselt number correlations, are investigated to illuminate mixed convection behavior. The calculated database will be instrumental in understanding flow behavior in the downcomer. Ultimately, we aim to evaluate existing heat transfer correlations, and some modifications are proposed.