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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
Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2025)
February 3–6, 2025
Amelia Island, FL|Omni Amelia Island Resort
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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State lawmakers across the country push for more nuclear
From lifting moratoriums to launching studies to labeling it as clean, state lawmakers are exploring ways to give nuclear energy a boost in 2025. Here’s a look at some of the pronuclear legislation under review.
Brandon Distler, Steve Baker, Jordan Gladden (Transware Enterprises), Hatice Akkurt (EPRI)
Proceedings | 16th International High-Level Radioactive Waste Management Conference (IHLRWM 2017) | Charlotte, NC, April 9-13, 2017 | Pages 925-930
Cask Loader, an EPRI software system is a relational database program that facilitates the automated selection of candidate spent fuel assemblies for placement into dry cask storage canisters from spent fuel pools. Cask Loader allows users to compute the decay heat values for an extended burnup range using a modified regulatory guidance approach. Due to increased efficiency in operation, the number of assemblies with higher burnups increased exponentially within the past two decades. The NRC Regulatory Guide 3.54, published in 1999, set applicability limits for burnup that are below the current operational experience. Subsequently, within the past decade, the need for extending the burnup ranges significantly increased. Only two measurement points are available for extended burnup range. Analyses were performed for these two points and extended by including additional typical and hypothetical PWR and BWR assemblies. For this study, decay heat values were computed using Cask Loader and ORIGEN and were then compared against each other. The computational results showed that compared to ORIGEN, Cask Loader overestimates the decay heat values without any exception and therefore can be considered conservative in its estimation of decay heat values for high burnup range. In this paper, the comparative decay heat values are presented.