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
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
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
Apr 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
TerraPower begins U.K. regulatory approval process
Seattle-based TerraPower signaled its interest this week in building its Natrium small modular reactor in the United Kingdom, the company announced.
TerraPower sent a letter to the U.K.’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, formally establishing its intention to enter the U.K. generic design assessment (GDA) process. This is TerraPower’s first step in deployment of its Natrium technology—a 345-MW sodium fast reactor coupled with a molten salt energy storage unit—on the international stage.
E. W. Sucov, F. S. Malick, L. Green
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 4 | Number 2 | September 1983 | Pages 1084-1088
Blanket and First Wall Engineering | doi.org/10.13182/FST83-A23002
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A fluidized bed concept for blankets of dry or wetted first wall ICF reactors using solid lithium compounds is described. The reaction chamber is a right cylinder, 32 m high and 20 m in diameter; the blanket is composed of 36 steel tanks, 32m high, which carry the sintered Li2O particles in the fluidizing helium gas. Each tank has a radial thickness of 2 m which generates a tritium breeding ratio (TBR) of 1.27 and absorbs over 98% of the neutron energy; reducing the thickness to 1.2 m produces a TBR of 1.2 and energy absorption of 97% which satisfy the design goals. Calculations of tritium diffusion through the grains and heat removal from the grains showed that neither could be removed by the carrier gas; tritium and heat are therefore removed by removing the grains continuously. The particles are continuously fed into the bottom of the tanks at 300°C and removed at the top at 475°C. Tritium and heat extraction are easily and conveniently done outside the reactor. Compared to blanket designs which use flowing liquid metals or packed beds of solid lithium compounds, this concept is safer, simpler, cheaper, easier to maintain and less likely to break down. In addition, this concept is compatible with both wetted wall and dry wall first wall designs. Finally, deleterious thermal expansion effects due to absorption of the neutron pulse in liquid lithium or the packed bed disappear because of the decoupling of the particles in the helium stream.