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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Nuclear Science and Engineering
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Latest News
Norway’s Halden reactor takes first step toward decommissioning
The government of Norway has granted the transfer of the Halden research reactor from the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) to the state agency Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning (NND). The 25-MWt Halden boiling water reactor operated from 1958 to 2018 and was used in the research of nuclear fuel, reactor internals, plant procedures and monitoring, and human factors.
Charles W. Forsberg, Per F. Peterson, Paul S. Pickard
Nuclear Technology | Volume 144 | Number 3 | December 2003 | Pages 289-302
Technical Paper | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT03-1
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The molten-salt-cooled Advanced High-Temperature Reactor (AHTR) is a new reactor concept designed to provide very high-temperature (750 to 1000°C) heat to enable efficient low-cost thermochemical production of hydrogen (H2) or production of electricity. This paper provides an initial description and technical analysis of its key features. The proposed AHTR uses coated-particle graphite-matrix fuel similar to that used in high-temperature gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs), such as the General Atomics gas turbine-modular helium reactor. However, unlike the HTGRs, the AHTR uses a molten-salt coolant and a pool configuration, similar to that of the General Electric Super Power Reactor Inherently Safe Module (S-PRISM) liquid-metal reactor. Because the boiling points for molten fluoride salts are near ~1400°C, the reactor can operate at very high temperatures and atmospheric pressure. For thermochemical H2 production, the heat is delivered at the required near-constant high temperature and low pressure. For electricity production, a multireheat helium Brayton (gas-turbine) cycle, with efficiencies >50%, is used. The low-pressure molten-salt coolant, with its high heat capacity and natural circulation heat transfer capability, creates the potential for robust safety (including fully passive decay-heat removal) and improved economics with passive safety systems that allow higher power densities and scaling to large reactor sizes [>1000 MW(electric)].