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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
First astatine-labeled compound shipped in the U.S.
The Department of Energy’s National Isotope Development Center (NIDC) on March 31 announced the successful long-distance shipment in the United States of a biologically active compound labeled with the medical radioisotope astatine-211 (At-211). Because previous shipments have included only the “bare” isotope, the NIDC has described the development as “unleashing medical innovation.”
Sang Min Han, Poong Hyun Seong (KAIST)
Proceedings | Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human-Machine Interface Technolgies (NPIC&HMIT 2019) | Orlando, FL, February 9-14, 2019 | Pages 1088-1094
The aim of this study is to propose initiating threats and their bounding groups in order to identify initiating cyber threats, and to further apply the initiating threats to cyber risk assessment in nuclear power plants (NPPs). NPP are generally thought to be secure from cyber-attacks, as the control/monitoring network and business network in a NPP are separate from the external network. However, consecutive incidents at nuclear facilities have revealed the necessity of cyber risk assessment for NPPs. To determine initiating threats and their bounding groups for NPP, Operational experience report (OER) and repository of industrial security incidents (RISI) database were utilized. Each of the chosen incidents was documented with descriptions based on the following five characteristics: 1) type of attacker, 2) intentionality, 3) access method, 4) access type, and 5) purpose of the attack. The proposed organization of initiating threats and their bounding groups for NPPs represent a valid first attempt to determine such threats based on actual industrial incidents. This advance can also be further applied to describe scenarios and models of NPP cyber-risk assessments.
