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
Radiation Protection & Shielding
The Radiation Protection and Shielding Division is developing and promoting radiation protection and shielding aspects of nuclear science and technology — including interaction of nuclear radiation with materials and biological systems, instruments and techniques for the measurement of nuclear radiation fields, and radiation shield design and evaluation.
Meeting Spotlight
Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
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!
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Jul 2024
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Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
ARPA-E announces $40 million to develop transmutation technologies for UNF
The Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) announced $40 million in funding to develop cutting-edge technologies to enable the transmutation of used nuclear fuel into less-radioactive substances. According to ARPA-E, the new initiative addresses one of the agency’s core goals as outlined by Congress: to provide transformative solutions to improve the management, cleanup, and disposal of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel.
Christopher G. Morrison
Nuclear Technology | Volume 206 | Number 8 | August 2020 | Pages 1224-1239
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2020.1738173
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The specific mass (or mass per unit power) is a fundamental performance metric in space power systems. For surface power, a low specific mass reduces launch costs and lander size. For nuclear electric propulsion, a low specific mass enables fast transit within the solar system. Studies on specific mass have typically focused on point designs and have not adequately explored the design space and scaling of specific mass. This research explores the design space for radiatively cooled closed nuclear Brayton systems. Specifically, the key innovation in this work is to determine the scaling according to the maximum temperature capability and total power system power. When these two factors are analyzed together, the resulting analyses show a clear scaling for specific mass.