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
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Jan 2025
Jul 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
February 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
“Summer time” again? Santee Cooper thinks so
South Carolina public utility Santee Cooper and its partner South Carolina Electric & Gas (SCE&G) called a halt to the Summer-2 and -3 AP1000 construction project in July 2017, citing costly delays and the bankruptcy of Westinghouse. The well-chronicled legal fallout included indictments and settlements, and ultimately left Santee Cooper with the ownership of nonnuclear assets at the construction site in Jenkinsville, S.C.
Thiago H. da Silva, Drew Butler, Austin Biaggne, Nirmala Kandadai, Harish Subbaraman (Boise State Univ), Joshua Daw (INL), Lan Li (Boise State Univ/Center for Advanced Energy Studies)
Proceedings | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technolgies (NPIC&HMIT 2019) | Orlando, FL, February 9-14, 2019 | Pages 448-458
Density functional theory-based calculations and ab-initio molecular dynamics have been performed in order to study the effects of dopants and radiation defects on the structures and optical properties of amorphous silica in comparison to sapphire – another high-temperature and radiation-resistant material. Out studies focused on oxygen deficient centers ODCs (a typical point defect due to radiation damage) and fluorine F dopants. Optical properties depend on dielectric function, calculated from the charge density of the material. With real- and imaginary-part dielectric functions, all the other optical properties, such as refractive index, energy loss function, and absorption coefficient, could be derived. Optical properties of amorphous silica and sapphire become anisotropic with either ODC or F dopants. They contribute characteristic peaks to the optical spectra and induce minor peaks in the low photon energy ranges. Static optical coefficients significantly increase with F dopants, but they might remain or slightly increase with ODC. Our results suggest that adding dopants can improve the optical properties of the materials and potentially inhabit the formation of high-temperature and radiation defects, resulting in an enhancement of the light signal in their transmitted spectra. Controlling dopant concentration also plays a crucial role, because a high dopant concentration could cause a structural distortion and degrade the optical performance of the material.