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.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
Mar 2026
Jan 2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
April 2026
Nuclear Technology
February 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
60 Years of U: Perspectives on resources, demand, and the evolving role of nuclear energy
Recent years have seen growing global interest in nuclear energy and rising confidence in the sector. For the first time since the early 2000s, there is renewed optimism about the industry’s future. This change is driven by several major factors: geopolitical developments that highlight the need for secure energy supplies, a stronger focus on resilient energy systems, national commitments to decarbonization, and rising demand for clean and reliable electricity.
Vaibhav Yadav Jason K. Hansen, Shawn St. Germain (INL), Robby Christian (RPI)
Proceedings | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technolgies (NPIC&HMIT 2019) | Orlando, FL, February 9-14, 2019 | Pages 24-38
Economic or financial causes have led to closure or pending early retirement of several US nuclear reactors in the last five years. The published report “Economic and Market Challenges Facing the US Nuclear Commercial Fleet – Cost and Revenue Study” by Idaho National Laboratory (INL) identified 63 of the 79 studied nuclear power plants (NPP) lost money in the year 2016. The revenue-gap analysis (Figure 1) performed in the study also concluded that additional revenue is required to return most of these nuclear power units to profitable operations [1]. This can be achieved by reducing the operation and maintenance (O&M) costs that account for about 70% of the total operating expenditures for an NPP (Figure 2). There are many ways of reducing O&M costs; this work presents an innovative framework of reducing O&M costs by utilizing the onsite FLEX equipment at NPPs.