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
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
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.
Jacob Keese, D. Keith Hollingsworth
Nuclear Technology | Volume 210 | Number 1 | January 2024 | Pages 165-179
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2023.2216989
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A more advanced form of nuclear propulsion known as centrifugal nuclear thermal propulsion (CNTP) promises increased propellant temperatures that could lead to a high specific impulse in the range of 1500 to 1800 s with hydrogen. This design has the potential of opening opportunities to perform missions to destinations much farther than currently possible. However, the CNTP concept poses many engineering challenges due to the nuclear fuel operating at high temperature in a liquid phase. A one-dimensional, steady-state thermal model of the liquid uranium fuel has been constructed to understand the limitations of this concept and the potential design considerations. Three related basic designs are considered, and key design parameters are varied in order to predict the temperature levels and void fractions across the liquid uranium pool.