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
Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
Meeting Spotlight
Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2025)
February 3–6, 2025
Amelia Island, FL|Omni Amelia Island Resort
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
February 2025
Nuclear Technology
January 2025
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Latest News
Reboot: Nuclear needs a success . . . anywhere
The media have gleefully resurrected the language of a past nuclear renaissance. Beyond the hype and PR, many people in the nuclear community are taking a more measured view of conditions that could lead to new construction: data center demand, the proliferation of new reactor designs and start-ups, and the sudden ascendance of nuclear energy as the power source everyone wants—or wants to talk about.
Once built, large nuclear reactors can provide clean power for at least 80 years—outlasting 10 to 20 presidential administrations. Smaller reactors can provide heat and power outputs tailored to an end user’s needs. With all the new attention, are we any closer to getting past persistent supply chain and workforce issues and building these new plants? And what will the election of Donald Trump to a second term as president mean for nuclear?
As usual, there are more questions than answers, and most come down to money. Several developers are engaging with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or have already applied for a license, certification, or permit. But designs without paying customers won’t get built. So where are the customers, and what will it take for them to commit?
Bernard L. Cohen
Nuclear Technology | Volume 48 | Number 1 | April 1980 | Pages 63-69
Technical Paper | Radioactive Waste | doi.org/10.13182/NT80-A32448
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The several water intrusion scenario studies in the recent literature are all quite similar and may be easily understood if used to estimate the total number of eventual cancers per unit of energy generated, including their sensitivity to input parameters. However, these studies are grossly overpessimistic in several aspects of the problem, especially in using leach rate data from highly unrealistic experimental situations, and in ignoring geochemical considerations in both leaching and in transport. It is concluded that it is reasonable to expect removal and transport for an atom of buried waste to be similar to that for an atom of average rock. Under that assumption, the leach rate can be estimated from the chemical compositions of rock and of groundwater, coupled with the water flow through aquifers. The result (excluding 238U) is 0.0008 eventual cancer/GW(electric)-yr. This treatment would be invalidated if the waste were released through fractures in the rock induced by the emplacement operations or by heat. If such fractures cannot be discounted, total reliance must be on leach resistance.
