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
Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
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
G7 pledges support for nuclear at Italy meeting
The Group of Seven (G7) recommitted its support for nuclear energy in the countries that opt to use it at a Ministerial Meeting on Climate in Italy last month.
In a statement following the April meeting, the group committed to support multilateral efforts to strengthen the resilience of nuclear supply chains, referencing the goal set by 25 countries during last year’s COP28 climate conference in Dubai to triple global nuclear generating capacity by 2050.
T. Cutler, H. Trellue, M. Blood, T. Grove, E. Luther, N. Thompson, N. Wynne
Nuclear Technology | Volume 209 | Number 1 | January 2023 | Pages S92-S108
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2022.2027146
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Hypatia measurement campaign with YHx moderators and highly enriched uranium (HEU) was completed in January 2021 at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Criticality Experiments Research Center at the Nevada National Security Site. This measurement campaign provided unique integral measurements based on two experimental configurations and investigated the temperature effects of yttrium hydride (YHX = 1.8 and 1.9) in a critical reactor system, which is of potential interest for microreactor designs. The Hypatia experiment consisted of a fuel column composed of HEU, 93 wt% 235U discs, encapsulated YHX, aluminum oxide heater plates, and other moderator and reflector materials (beryllium, depleted uranium, and graphite) inserted into a thick beryllium reflector. During the Hypatia experiment, baseline measurements were taken at room temperature. The aluminum oxide heater plates were specially designed and used for this project to increase the central core temperature to a range of temperatures, after which additional reactivity measurements were taken. Thermal and neutronic calculations predicted that YHX is a unique material that can exhibit a positive temperature coefficient of reactivity (i.e., reactivity can increase as the temperature in the YHX increases). Reactors using YHX should account for this unique feature during design, and the results of the Hypatia experiment significantly aid that process. For configuration 1, six different temperature reactivity measurements were taken with four YHX cans in the fuel column. For configuration 2, six different temperature reactivity measurements were taken with two YHX cans in the fuel column. The use of these two configurations provide a comparison of neutronic effects from the YHX cans versus other components. Preliminary conclusions show the positive temperature coefficient is similar but slightly less than predicted by simulations. These two sets of data will be used to separate the reactivity coefficients of the fuel and other materials in the fuel column.