The ANT research group is born from the convergence of three research lines that have been cooperating in the recent years and that have in common their relationship with the nuclear technology and the physics that support it. The lines are: thermal-hydraulics and safety, fusion technology, and nuclear data measurement. The group aims at maintaining a level of excellence in their research and technology transfer capabilities, in the field of nuclear engineering, in order to guarantee an education of quality at master's level. Energy in general and nuclear power in particular represent a strategic area of knowledge. Whatever the position of the society regarding nuclear energy in the future, industry will need experts who must be trained not only at the highest scientific and technical level, but also must be imbued with a safety culture based on rigor, honesty and self-demand. Also the public administration will need professionals with the highest levels of expertise to carry out the tasks of supervision and regulation of the nuclear industry.

There are other more basic reasons for the confluence of the three lines of research. Our participation in several national and international projects has shown that there may be powerful synergies between the three lines that can open up possibilities yet to be explored. Separately, each of the groups work with simulation tools at different scales and degree of detail (neutron transport code and radiation by means of Monte Carlo techniques – MCNPX, GEANT4, FLUKA-, CFD codes with MHD simulation capabilities developed by the group, thermal-hydraulic system codes with coupling of reactor kinetics codes), the combination of all the capabilities allow us to deal with problems that require an interdisciplinary approach and a multi-physics simulation.