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
Isotopes & Radiation
Members are devoted to applying nuclear science and engineering technologies involving isotopes, radiation applications, and associated equipment in scientific research, development, and industrial processes. Their interests lie primarily in education, industrial uses, biology, medicine, and health physics. Division committees include Analytical Applications of Isotopes and Radiation, Biology and Medicine, Radiation Applications, Radiation Sources and Detection, and Thermal Power Sources.
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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Latest News
First astatine-labeled compound shipped in the U.S.
The Department of Energy’s National Isotope Development Center (NIDC) on March 31 announced the successful long-distance shipment in the United States of a biologically active compound labeled with the medical radioisotope astatine-211 (At-211). Because previous shipments have included only the “bare” isotope, the NIDC has described the development as “unleashing medical innovation.”
L. Romero, L. Moreno, I. Neretnieks
Nuclear Technology | Volume 112 | Number 1 | October 1995 | Pages 89-98
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT95-A15854
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Radionuclides leaking from a damaged canister spread into the backfill material surrounding the canister and then migrate through different pathways into water-bearing fractures in the rock surrounding the nuclear waste repository. If the backfill and other materials surrounding the canister have a low permeability, water flow is then excluded from these materials, and the solute transport is by diffusion only. Some nuclides are delayed by sorption on the materials through which they move, and those nuclides with short half-lives may decay to insignificant concentrations before they reach the flowing water in the fractures in the rock. This complex and variable transport geometry is modeled using a compartment model. The NUCTRAN compartment model is a useful tool to calculate the nonstationary transport of single nuclides or radionuclide chains. The model, which is a very coarsely discretized integrated finite difference model, is devised to be very fast and compact by embedding analytical solutions at sensitive points such as entrances and exits from small holes and fractures. The nuclide inventory in the source may be calculated using a solubility limit approach or a congruent dissolution approach. The model is flexible and can easily be adapted to various geometries. NUCTRAN agrees well with models using a very detailed discretization. Accuracy is gained if compartments with very large capacities are subdivided into a few compartments.