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
Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
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!
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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.
Kyle Carberry, Bojan Petrovic
Nuclear Technology | Volume 210 | Number 3 | March 2024 | Pages 409-435
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2023.2229181
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The research presented herein outlines a comprehensive process for characterizing the major radiological source terms necessary for radiation protection and licensing activities that one would expect in a liquid-fueled molten salt reactor. This process leverages organic simulation tools in the SCALE modeling and simulation code suite to provide an “off-the-shelf” solution for shielding assessments of this reactor type. Ultimately, this source development process is applied to a representative molten salt reactor system to assess the impact of ex-core source terms on shielding in varying operating conditions. The results of the analysis determined that while the prompt core source is the major dose contributor outside the radiological shielding, specific ex-core features, such as the primary salt loop components and configuration, can have an appreciable dose impact, and thus must be accounted for.