ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
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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
Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2025)
February 3–6, 2025
Amelia Island, FL|Omni Amelia Island Resort
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
January 2025
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Christmas Night
Twas the night before Christmas when all through the houseNo electrons were flowing through even my mouse.
All devices were plugged in by the chimney with careWith the hope that St. Nikola Tesla would share.
S. O. Kucheyev, J. M. Lenhardt
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 73 | Number 3 | April 2018 | Pages 293-297
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1392205
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Liquid hydrogen confined in pores of nanofoams crystallizes at lower temperatures than in the unconfined, bulk state. Here, we summarize results of our recent systematic relaxation calorimetry studies of the liquid–solid phase transition of hydrogen and deuterium in various materials with open-cell pores. These include spinodal-decomposition-derived silica glasses and nanoporous gold, conventional silica aerogels, and carbon foams with ligaments made from nanotubes and graphene sheets, all of which were studied previously. We present new hydrogen thermoporometry data for polymeric norbornene-based aerogels. Results show that hydrogen freezing temperatures inside all the porous materials studied are depressed. The average depression of the freezing point scales linearly with the ratio of the internal surface area to the pore volume. The average freezing point depression is limited to ≲1.6 K for foams with monolith densities ≲50 mg·cm. Details of the freezing behavior, however, depend nontrivially on the choice of the porous material and on the hydrogen-filling fraction, reflecting phenomena that are beyond the Gibbs-Thomson formalism and pointing to the complexity of pore architectures in the low-density materials of interest to thermonuclear fusion energy applications.