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
Decommissioning & Environmental Sciences
The mission of the Decommissioning and Environmental Sciences (DES) Division is to promote the development and use of those skills and technologies associated with the use of nuclear energy and the optimal management and stewardship of the environment, sustainable development, decommissioning, remediation, reutilization, and long-term surveillance and maintenance of nuclear-related installations, and sites. The target audience for this effort is the membership of the Division, the Society, and the public at large.
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.”
Anh-Tuan Cao, Thanh-Tuan Tran, Thi-Hong-Xuyen Nguyen, Dookie Kim
Nuclear Technology | Volume 206 | Number 5 | May 2020 | Pages 743-757
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2019.1696643
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper proposes a simplified approach for assessing and predicting the seismic risks for electrical cabinets in nuclear power plants (NPPs). The method is a combination of fragility analysis and cumulative absolute velocity (CAV) analysis. First, the high confidence of low probability of failure points from the fragility curves are defined to determine the capacity of the cabinet. Then, the potential damage to the electrical cabinet at different locations in Korea is considered via probabilistic seismic maps. Based on the capacity, a seismic risk assessment is conducted to observe the operant condition or predict the potential issues of the electrical cabinet under seismic effects.
An electrical cabinet is used as a setting for numerical simulation. The finite element model is validated against the experimental results and calibrated by using response surface methodology. Numerical results show that the operant condition of the electrical cabinet can be disturbed by probable earthquakes that have CAV values greater than the of 0.27 g‧s. This method is one way that NPP operators can follow to obtain cabinet safety regulations.
