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
Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
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
Apr 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2025
Nuclear Technology
April 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
General Kenneth Nichols and the Manhattan Project
Nichols
The Oak Ridger has published the latest in a series of articles about General Kenneth D. Nichols, the Manhattan Project, and the 1954 Atomic Energy Act. The series has been produced by Nichols’ grandniece Barbara Rogers Scollin and Oak Ridge (Tenn.) city historian David Ray Smith. Gen. Nichols (1907–2000) was the district engineer for the Manhattan Engineer District during the Manhattan Project.
As Smith and Scollin explain, Nichols “had supervision of the research and development connected with, and the design, construction, and operation of, all plants required to produce plutonium-239 and uranium-235, including the construction of the towns of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Richland, Washington. The responsibility of his position was massive as he oversaw a workforce of both military and civilian personnel of approximately 125,000; his Oak Ridge office became the center of the wartime atomic energy’s activities.”
Robert J. Schott, Charles L. Weaver, Mark A. Prelas, Kyuhak Oh, Jason B. Rothenberger, R. V. Tompson, Denis A. Wisniewski
Nuclear Technology | Volume 181 | Number 2 | February 2013 | Pages 349-353
Technical Paper | Radioisotopes | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-A15789
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The use of a photon intermediate direct energy conversion (PIDEC) process to develop a proof of concept of a long-lived and efficient nuclear battery powered by a radioactive beta source is discussed. Fundamentally, PIDEC is a means of matching the scale length of the range of radiation to the scale length of the transducer. The device uses a photovoltaic cell and excimer gas-based photon source. In this work, argon was used to produce the excimer photon source (argon excimer at 129 nm) with a pressure range from 7 × 10-3 to 1.4 × 107 Pa (10-6 to 2100 psig). The beta source used in this study was a 90Sr source that has a daughter, 90Y, that then decays to stable 90Zr. Intermediate shielding from lead and an argon gas plenum were used to prevent damage to the photovoltaic cell. This battery demonstrated power variations with gas pressure as expected, and no radiation damage to the photovoltaic cell was observed over a period in excess of 150 h. Such a long exposure period demonstrates the desired tolerance of the device to the direct radiation damage that would otherwise be sustained in normal semiconductor-based energy conversion systems.