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
Human Factors, Instrumentation & Controls
Improving task performance, system reliability, system and personnel safety, efficiency, and effectiveness are the division's main objectives. Its major areas of interest include task design, procedures, training, instrument and control layout and placement, stress control, anthropometrics, psychological input, and motivation.
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.”
Jun Hwan Kim, Byoung Kwon Choi, Yong Hwan Jeong, Seung Jin Oh
Nuclear Technology | Volume 165 | Number 2 | February 2009 | Pages 241-248
Technical Paper | Materials for Nuclear Systems | doi.org/10.13182/NT09-A4089
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Studies were conducted to investigate the effect of the intermediate cooling process on the thermal shock behavior of Zircaloy-4 fuel cladding under a simulated loss-of-coolant accident condition and to analyze the related mechanical and microstructural properties. The Zircaloy-4 specimen was oxidized at the desired temperature and time, then various cooling processes were applied such as the direct water quench, the intermediate cooling at 700°C for 200 and 2000 s, and the successive cooling from 950 to 700°C. The results showed that the direct water quenching without any intermediate cooling process reduced the cladding ductility in that it reduced the minimum equivalent cladding reacted from 20 to near 17%. Ring compression ductility decreased, and the minimum thickness of the prior-beta layer thickness that causes brittle failure increased from 0.3 to 0.4 mm in the case of the direct water quench condition. As the cooling rate increased, the size of the plate inside the prior-beta phase decreased so that it induced an increase in the residual dislocation density to result in a decrease of the cladding ductility. Additional oxidation effect during a slow cooling below 950°C had little influence on the cladding behavior.