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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
Commercial nuclear innovation "new space" age
In early 2006, a start-up company launched a small rocket from a tiny island in the Pacific. It exploded, showering the island with debris. A year later, a second launch attempt sent a rocket to space but failed to make orbit, burning up in the atmosphere. Another year brought a third attempt—and a third failure. The following month, in September 2008, the company used the last of its funds to launch a fourth rocket. It reached orbit, making history as the first privately funded liquid-fueled rocket to do so.
Hirokazu Ohta, Takanari Ogata, Toru Obara
Nuclear Technology | Volume 187 | Number 2 | August 2014 | Pages 198-207
Regular Technical Paper | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-105
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Innovative fuel design measures to attain a much higher burnup than that obtained using the conventional concept were investigated for a fast reactor (FR) metal fuel. Considering the typical mechanism of metal fuel degradation, three innovative design measures were proposed: (a) a decrease in plenum pressure by adopting the fission gas vent design, (b) prevention of fuel-cladding chemical interaction by lining the cladding inner wall, and (c) mitigation of fuel-cladding mechanical interaction by reducing the fuel smear density. The effects of these design measures on increasing the burnup were analyzed with ALFUS, an irradiation behavior analysis code for FR metal fuels. The ALFUS analysis revealed that a very high burnup of >40 at. % can be attained under the conventional design criteria for securing fuel integrity by applying these innovative measures. Neutronic analysis of a metal fuel core employing these design measures indicated that a high burnup of >40 at. % at the assembly peak can be attained while suppressing the burnup reactivity swing to almost the same level as that of conventional cores with normal burnup through the use of a minor actinide–containing fuel.