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- ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
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- Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
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  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.
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  ANS Student Conference 2025
  April 3–5, 2025
  Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
Standards
- 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!
Publications
- Latest Magazine Issues
  Apr 2025
  Jan 2025
  Latest Journal Issues
  Nuclear Science and Engineering
  May 2025
  Nuclear Technology
  April 2025
  Fusion Science and Technology
  April 2025
- Latest News
  State legislation: Colorado redefines nuclear as “clean energy resource”
  Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed a bill into law on Monday that adds nuclear to the state’s clean energy portfolio—making nuclear power eligible for new sources of project financing at the state, county, and city levels.
Search

A method that includes a genetic algorithm (GA), principal component analysis (PCA), and an artificial neural network (ANN) is adopted in the search for the power ascension path of a boiling water reactor that used to rely solely on an operator's experiences. The power ascension path is formulated as an optimization problem with thermal limits, e.g., minimum critical power ratio, maximum linear heat generation rate, and maximum average planar linear heat generation rate, and with the stability requirement serving as a constraint. The Simulate-3 code is used to calculate the reactor core status, while the optimization problem is solved through the use of the GA. Since the search domain of the GA is relatively large, the ANN, which models the power ascension path, is developed in order to quickly select the candidate solutions for further Simulate-3 calculations, permitting the algorithm to converge effectively. Meanwhile, PCA is used to reduce the ANN input vector's dimension, which improves the ANN training efficiency and pattern recognition capability. The results show that this method efficiently obtains the proper power ascension path required for meeting all constraints at different fuel exposure levels.