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.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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
Jul 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
September 2025
Nuclear Technology
August 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Deep Space: The new frontier of radiation controls
In commercial nuclear power, there has always been a deliberate tension between the regulator and the utility owner. The regulator fundamentally exists to protect the worker, and the utility, to make a profit. It is a win-win balance.
From the U.S. nuclear industry has emerged a brilliantly successful occupational nuclear safety record—largely the result of an ALARA (as low as reasonably achievable) process that has driven exposure rates down to what only a decade ago would have been considered unthinkable. In the U.S. nuclear industry, the system has accomplished an excellent, nearly seamless process that succeeds to the benefit of both employee and utility owner.
Stuart A. Maloy, Walter F. Sommer, Michael R. James, Tobias J. Romero, Manuel R. Lopez, Eugene Zimmermann, James M. Ledbetter
Nuclear Technology | Volume 132 | Number 1 | October 2000 | Pages 103-114
Technical Paper | Accelerator Applications | doi.org/10.13182/NT00-A3132
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A materials qualification program has been developed to irradiate and test candidate materials (alloy 718, Type 316L, and Type 304L stainless steel, modified Fe9Cr-1Mo(T91), Al-6061-T6, and Al-5052-O) for use in the Accelerator Production of Tritium (APT) target and blanket. The irradiations were performed in prototypic proton and neutron spectra at prototypic temperatures (50 to 160°C). The study used the 800-MeV, 1.0-mA proton accelerator at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center, which produces a Gaussian beam with 2 sigma = 3 cm. The experiment geometry is arranged to contain near-prototypic modules of the tungsten neutron source and the lead and aluminum blanket as well as mechanical test specimens of candidate APT materials. The particle spectrum varies throughout the irradiation volume; specimens are exposed to protons and a variety of mixed proton and neutron spectra, depending on the specimen's position relative to the beam center. These specimens have been irradiated for >3600 h to a maximum proton fluence of 4 × 1021 p/cm2 in the center of the proton beam. Specimens will yield data on the effect of proton irradiation, to high dose, on material properties from tensile tests, three-point bend tests, fracture toughness tests, pressurized tubes, U-bend stress corrosion cracking specimens, corrosion measurements, and microstructural characterization using transmission electron microscopy specimens. Results from these studies are applicable to all spallation neutron sources now in operation and under consideration, including the Spallation Neutron Source, the European Spallation Source, and The Accelerator Transmutation of Waste project.
