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
Thermal Hydraulics
The division provides a forum for focused technical dialogue on thermal hydraulic technology in the nuclear industry. Specifically, this will include heat transfer and fluid mechanics involved in the utilization of nuclear energy. It is intended to attract the highest quality of theoretical and experimental work to ANS, including research on basic phenomena and application to nuclear system design.
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
Mar 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2025
Nuclear Technology
April 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
El Salvador: Looking to nuclear
In 2022, El Salvador’s leadership decided to expand its modest, mostly hydro- and geothermal-based electricity system, which is supported by expensive imported natural gas and diesel generation. They chose to use advanced nuclear reactors, preferably fueled by thorium-based fuels, to power their civilian efforts. The choice of thorium was made to inform the world that the reactor program was for civilian purposes only, and so they chose a fuel that was plentiful, easy to source and work with, and not a proliferation risk.
Charles Forsberg
Nuclear Technology | Volume 208 | Number 4 | April 2022 | Pages 688-710
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2021.1947121
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Markets are changing as the result of (1) the addition of variable wind and solar that causes highly volatile electricity prices and (2) the goal of a low-carbon economy. These changes require economic low-carbon dispatchable electricity, which is now provided by natural gas turbines, and dispatchable heat for industry and commerce. Moreover, nuclear plant requirements have changed in the last 50 years with high capital costs in western countries. An alternative plant design is described with the nuclear island separated from a nonnuclear power block by large-scale heat storage. All heat from the reactor is sent to heat storage. The nuclear reactor operates at base load and is sized to meet average energy demand over a period of days. Heat storage provides variable heat to industry and/or the power block. The nonnuclear power block is sized to provide peak electricity capacity (kilowatts) several times the nuclear reactor base-load power output to maximize revenue by sale of electricity at times of high prices. The power block capital cost (heat exchanger, turbine, and generator) per unit of generating capacity (kilowatt) is less than a conventional gas turbine that includes heat generation (compressor and burner) and the power block (turbine and generator). Nuclear reactor capital cost is reduced by fewer requirements on the nuclear system (not connected to the grid) and nuclear-quality construction for only the reactor. Operating costs (security, maintenance, etc.) are minimized by separation of the nuclear reactor plant from balance of plant. Low-cost heat storage provides a competitive economic advantage to heat-generating technologies (nuclear, concentrated solar power) over electricity-generating technologies (wind, solar, photovoltaic) with more-expensive battery or other electricity storage systems in providing dispatchable electricity to the grid.