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
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!
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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.
Rio Quinn
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 198 | Number 9 | September 2024 | Pages 1874-1878
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2023.2278931
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper analyzes the design of an alpha-decay sail. While previous studies have been conducted on the feasibility of alpha-decay sails, none have investigated the effects of different backing materials and backing material thicknesses on propulsion. This paper conducts simulations using the particle simulation toolkit Geant4 to determine the thrust produced from alpha-decay sails constructed of 238Pu and a backing layer made of aluminum, beryllium, lithium, or polyethylene. The results demonstrate that alpha-decay sails can be a very useful form of in-space propulsion, having the potential to dramatically decrease travel time beyond distances of 100 AU.
