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Division Spotlight
Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy
The mission of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Policy Division (NNPD) is to promote the peaceful use of nuclear technology while simultaneously preventing the diversion and misuse of nuclear material and technology through appropriate safeguards and security, and promotion of nuclear nonproliferation policies. To achieve this mission, the objectives of the NNPD are to: Promote policy that discourages the proliferation of nuclear technology and material to inappropriate entities. Provide information to ANS members, the technical community at large, opinion leaders, and decision makers to improve their understanding of nuclear nonproliferation issues. Become a recognized technical resource on nuclear nonproliferation, safeguards, and security issues. Serve as the integration and coordination body for nuclear nonproliferation activities for the ANS. Work cooperatively with other ANS divisions to achieve these objective nonproliferation policies.
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!
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Latest News
Corporate powerhouses join pledge to triple nuclear energy by 2050
Following in the steps of an international push to expand nuclear power capacity, a group of powerhouse corporations signed and announced a pledge today to support the goal of at least tripling global nuclear capacity by 2050.
A. Meli, S. Bassini, C. Ciantelli, A. Fiore, M. Angiolini, M. Tarantino
Nuclear Technology | Volume 210 | Number 4 | April 2024 | Pages 758-771
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2023.2257547
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR) is one of the most promising Generation-IV nuclear designs currently under development in Europe, China, and the United States. LFRs can ensure enhanced performance and minimal waste production thanks to a closed fuel cycle, but they also have some issues that need to be addressed. One of the most critical is the long-term degradation process initiated in structural materials exposed to liquid Pb. The present state of the art has shown that commercial austenitic steels, such as American Iron and Steel Institute 316L and 15-15Ti can be adopted as structural materials in Pb environments up to 480°C, beyond which they start to experience the dissolution of constituting alloying elements (Ni, Cr, and Fe) if not protected by a coating or by surface modification.
In more recent years, a lot of research effort has been done in order to develop new coating technologies and new base materials for operation with liquid Pb at higher temperatures. Among the newest alloys, alumina-forming austenitic (AFA) steels have gained interest in the research community because of their promising corrosion resistance results even at temperatures of 600°C. In this framework, an experimental campaign has been run at the Research Center ENEA of Brasimone that aims to characterize the behavior of two different AFA steels (with low and high Ni content in their composition) in static Pb at 650°C and 750°C with a moderate low oxygen concentration (10−6 wt %). After exposure, the AFA steels were characterized from the point of view of the morphology and composition, and the results are presented and discussed here.
