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
Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Apr 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2025
Nuclear Technology
April 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
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.
Sungwhan Cho, Jin Jiang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 161 | Number 2 | February 2008 | Pages 98-107
Technical Paper | Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT08-A3916
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A new technique for analyzing the effect of testing on shutdown system (SDS) number 1 (SDS1) in Canadian deuterium uranium (CANDU) nuclear power plants is proposed. The effect of the test on the core damage probability is quantified using a Markov process model. The model is used to derive the effect of the test frequency on the unavailability and the spurious reactor trip probability. Two core damage scenarios are considered: one from a process failure with the unavailable SDS and the other from a spurious reactor trip. The Markov process model is then used with the core damage scenarios to analyze the effect of the test frequency on the core damage probability. The quantified core damage probabilities indicate that performing more frequent surveillance tests does not necessarily decrease the risk. In fact, there exists an optimal test frequency beyond which the probability of core damage starts to increase. This optimal test frequency is of significance in practice.