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Division Spotlight
Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
Meeting Spotlight
Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
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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Nuclear Science and Engineering
September 2024
Nuclear Technology
August 2024
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
The JT-60SA project
JT-60SA (Japan Torus-60 Super Advanced) is the world’s largest superconducting tokamak device. Its goal is the earlier realization of fusion energy (see Fig. 1). Fusion is the energy that powers the Sun, and just 1 gram of deuterium-tritium (D-T) fuel produces enormous energy—the equivalent of 8 tons of crude oil.
Last fall, the JT-60SA project announced an important milestone: the achievement of the tokamak’s first plasma. This article describes the objectives of the JT-60SA project, achievements in the operation campaign for the first plasma, and next steps.
Hiroaki Suzuki, Masanori Naitoh, Atsuo Takahashi, Marco Pellegrini, Hidetoshi Okada
Nuclear Technology | Volume 186 | Number 2 | May 2014 | Pages 255-262
Technical Paper | Reactor Safety | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-42
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011, mark the start of the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Progression of the accident has been analyzed with the SAMPSON code. SAMPSON was originally designed as a large-scale simulation system with the maximum use of mechanistic models and theoretically based equations. In the progression analysis done for Unit 2, SAMPSON could reproduce the pressure transient of the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) reasonably well by assuming partial load operation of the reactor core isolation cooling system (RCIC). The pressure transient of the primary containment vessel was reproduced reasonably well by assuming torus room flooding. After the RCIC trip and manual opening of the steam relief valve, SAMPSON predicted the damage to the upper part of the fuel assemblies near the core center and RPV failure due to creep rupture. More than 91 wt% of the core debris relocated to the lower plenum was as particles, and the major constituents were UO2, Zr, and ZrO2 by SAMPSON analysis.