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
Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
May 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Proving DRACO will deliver
The United States is now closer than it has been in over five decades to launching the first nuclear thermal rocket into space, thanks to DRACO—the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Orbit.
Ahmad Al Rashdan, Johanna Oxstrand, Vivek Agarwal
Nuclear Technology | Volume 202 | Number 2 | May-June 2018 | Pages 201-209
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2017.1406774
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
As part of the ongoing efforts at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program, Idaho National Laboratory is conducting several research projects in collaboration with the nuclear industry to improve the reliability, safety, and economics of the nuclear power industry, especially as the nuclear power plants extend their operating licenses to 80 years. One of these projects is the automated work package (AWP) project. An AWP is an electronic intelligent and interactive work package. It uses plant condition, resources status, and user progress to adaptively drive the work process in a manner that increases efficiency while reducing human error. To achieve this mission, the AWP acquires information from various systems of a nuclear power plant and incorporates several advanced instrumentation and control technologies along with modern human factors techniques.
With the current rapid technological advancement, it is possible to envision several available or soon-to-be-available capabilities that can play a significant role in improving the work package process. As a pilot project, the AWP project develops a prototype of an expanding set of capabilities and evaluates them in an industrial environment. While some of the proposed capabilities are based on using technological advances in other applications, others are conceptual; thus, they require significant research and development to be applicable in an AWP. The scope of this paper is to introduce a set of envisioned capabilities, their need for the industry, and the industry difficulties they resolve.