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
General Kenneth Nichols and the Manhattan Project
Nichols
The Oak Ridger has published the latest in a series of articles about General Kenneth D. Nichols, the Manhattan Project, and the 1954 Atomic Energy Act. The series has been produced by Nichols’ grandniece Barbara Rogers Scollin and Oak Ridge (Tenn.) city historian David Ray Smith. Gen. Nichols (1907–2000) was the district engineer for the Manhattan Engineer District during the Manhattan Project.
As Smith and Scollin explain, Nichols “had supervision of the research and development connected with, and the design, construction, and operation of, all plants required to produce plutonium-239 and uranium-235, including the construction of the towns of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Richland, Washington. The responsibility of his position was massive as he oversaw a workforce of both military and civilian personnel of approximately 125,000; his Oak Ridge office became the center of the wartime atomic energy’s activities.”
Arthur E. Ruggles
Nuclear Technology | Volume 164 | Number 3 | December 2008 | Pages 309-319
Technical Paper | Fission Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT08-A4029
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Acoustic oscillations in nuclear steam supplies have caused structural vibration leading to plant modifications in both pressurized water reactor and boiling water reactor (BWR) systems. Power increases (i.e., uprates) in some BWR designs have resulted in acoustic oscillations in the steam supply that have caused fatigue failures in steam dryer assemblies. Standing waves in side branch lines are identified as one important acoustic source for waves in the main lines. The side branch standing waves are driven by vortex shedding across the branch opening. The side branch lines couple acoustically with standing waves in the main line, extending the range of physical behavior beyond that normally considered in the literature. There are many side branches mounted where there is flow in the main steam line, creating multiple acoustic sources, many of nearly the same frequency. These multiple sources cause time variation in the acoustic performance that may extend over many seconds, and these attributes must be considered during data acquisition, component load simulation, and stress simulation. Wet steam sound speed models appropriate to BWR steam supply conditions are also presented.