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
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
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
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
TerraPower begins U.K. regulatory approval process
Seattle-based TerraPower signaled its interest this week in building its Natrium small modular reactor in the United Kingdom, the company announced.
TerraPower sent a letter to the U.K.’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, formally establishing its intention to enter the U.K. generic design assessment (GDA) process. This is TerraPower’s first step in deployment of its Natrium technology—a 345-MW sodium fast reactor coupled with a molten salt energy storage unit—on the international stage.
Mohammad Modarres, Steven Krahn, James O’Brien
Nuclear Technology | Volume 207 | Number 3 | March 2021 | Pages 424-440
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2020.1805258
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper outlines research on understanding, characterizing, and managing conservatisms in safety analyses. This research includes a review of national and international approaches for developing and using conservative and best-estimate analyses. A probabilistic approach is discussed to support reducing conservatism while maintaining safety margins. An example of the proposed approach is applied to two case studies for nonreactor nuclear facilities. The objective of this work is to provide a means for better understanding and managing risks associated with nuclear facilities. The results from these examples show that conservative estimates could lead to excessive safety margins when compared to the best-estimate values; the amount of excess margin may be as high as one or more orders of magnitude.