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Division Spotlight
Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy
The mission of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy Division (NNPD) is to promote the peaceful use of nuclear technology while simultaneously preventing the diversion and misuse of nuclear material and technology through appropriate safeguards and security, and promotion of nuclear nonproliferation policies. To achieve this mission, the objectives of the NNPD are to: Promote policy that discourages the proliferation of nuclear technology and material to inappropriate entities. Provide information to ANS members, the technical community at large, opinion leaders, and decision makers to improve their understanding of nuclear nonproliferation issues. Become a recognized technical resource on nuclear nonproliferation, safeguards, and security issues. Serve as the integration and coordination body for nuclear nonproliferation activities for the ANS. Work cooperatively with other ANS divisions to achieve these objective nonproliferation policies.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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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Latest News
X-energy receives federal tax credit for TRISO fuel facility
Advanced reactor company X-energy has been awarded $148.5 million in tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act for construction of its TRISO-X fuel fabrication facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Eva Brayfindley, Ralph C. Smith, John Mattingly, Robert Brigantic
Nuclear Technology | Volume 204 | Number 3 | December 2018 | Pages 343-353
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2018.1490123
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Spent fuel monitoring and characterization has been central to safeguards and nuclear facility monitoring for many years. The Digital Cerenkov Viewing Device (DCVD) has been used since the 1980s as a method of defect detection in spent fuel. In recent years, the accounting for large quantities of spent fuel before storage has renewed interest in this relatively quick and inexpensive method. This has an impact not only in safeguards, but also for nuclear power facilities, as accounting can be a long, arduous, and costly process. Additionally, the DCVD demonstrates limited accuracy in more complex cases such as substitution of a fuel rod with steel or a partial defect detection. A second method, gamma emission tomography (GET) has been explored as an improved defect detection method, but is much more expensive and invasive than DCVD. The present investigation identifies deficiencies in both methods and proposes a combination of data gathered from each method to address these deficiencies for improved spent fuel characterization. Initial results are promising, showing 97% detection of a single missing fuel rod when the data types are combined, versus approximately 50% and 70%, respectively, for DCVD and GET data on their own. These classification results are obtained with algorithms derived from facial recognition and applied to this problem, yielding unique accuracy in near real time while also maintaining the information barrier between output and measurement desired in safeguards.