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
2024 ANS Winter Conference and Expo
November 17–21, 2024
Orlando, FL|Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld
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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August 2024
Latest News
New laws offer nuclear industry incentives for existing power plant uprates
This year, the U.S. nuclear industry received a much-needed economic boost that could help preserve operating nuclear power plants and incentivize upgrades that extend their lifespan and power output.
Signed into law in 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act offers production tax credits (PTCs) for existing nuclear power plants and either PTCs or investment tax credits (ITCs) for new carbon-free generation. These credits could make power uprates—increasing the maximum power level at which a commercial plant may operate—a much more appealing option for utilities.
W.E. Browning, Jr., C.E. Miller, Jr., R.P. Shields,B.F. Roberts
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 18 | Number 2 | February 1964 | Pages 151-162
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE64-1
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A series of experiments to study the amounts and forms of fission products released during simulated reactor accidents is described. These experiments consisted of melting miniature stainless-steel-clad UO2 fuel elements in a helium atmosphere in the Oak Ridge Research Reactor and measuring the fission products released. Fission and gamma heat in the reactor raised the temperature of the miniature fuel element sufficiently high to melt the UO2 without the use of external heat. In these experiments with UO2, nearly all of the iodine, tellurium, and cesium, and more than half of the strontium, zirconium, ruthenium, barium, and cerium were released from the fuel. Release of the latter group of fission products and uranium from a zone including the fuel and surrounding heat insulators was generally less than 3%. The minimum temperature of this zone during fuel melting was 1000 C. The retention of fission products within the high-temperature zone is considered to be significant since, during an actual reactor accident, temperatures corresponding to those of the high-temperature zone would probably occur only within the immediate area in which the fuel is overheated. Analysis of the observed distributions of deposited fission products yields information about their behavior and form. Ruthenium follows the stainless-steel cladding as it melts and vaporizes. Certain fission products are associated with millimicrometer-size particles of two size groups, one centered around 22 angstroms and the second around 30 angstroms in diameter. Comparisons of the fission-product-release values from in-pile and various out-of-pile experiments indicate that the in-pile releases are greater, probably because of more extreme temperatures.