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
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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Nuclear Science and Engineering
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Nuclear Technology
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Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Norway’s Halden reactor takes first step toward decommissioning
The government of Norway has granted the transfer of the Halden research reactor from the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) to the state agency Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning (NND). The 25-MWt Halden boiling water reactor operated from 1958 to 2018 and was used in the research of nuclear fuel, reactor internals, plant procedures and monitoring, and human factors.
C.B. Baxi, M.A. Ulrickson, D.E. Driemeyer, P. Heitzcnroeder
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 39 | Number 2 | March 2001 | Pages 408-411
Advanced Designs | doi.org/10.13182/FST01-A11963269
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Fusion Ignition Research Experiment (FIRE) is being designed as a next step in the U.S. magnetic fusion program. The FIRE tokamak has a major radius of 2 m, a minor radius of 0.525 m, and liquid nitrogen cooled copper coils. The aim is to produce a pulse length of 20 s with a plasma current of 6.6 MA and with alpha dominated heating.
The outer divertor and baffle of FIRE are water cooled. The worst thermal condition for the outer divertor and baffle is the baseline D-T operating mode (10 T, 6.6 MA, 20 s) with a plasma exhaust power of 67 MW and a peak heat flux of 20 MW/m2. A swirl tape (ST) heat transfer enhancement method is used in the outer divertor cooling channels to increase the heat transfer coefficient and the critical heat flux (CHF). The plasma-facing surface consists of tungsten brush.
The finite element (FE) analysis shows that for an inlet water temperature of 30°C, inlet pressure of 1.5 MPa and a flow velocity of 10 m/s, the incident critical heat flux is greater than 30 MW/m2. The peak copper temperature is 490°C, peak tungsten temperature is 1560°C, and the pressure drop is less than 0.5 MPa. All these results fulfill the design requirements.
