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
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
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!
Latest Magazine Issues
Aug 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
October 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
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.
Kunio Higashi, Akio Oya, Jun Oishi
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 32 | Number 2 | May 1968 | Pages 159-165
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE68-A19728
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Usually a number of separating stages have to be connected in series to attain the desired degree of isotope separation by gaseous diffusion. Such a series-connected group of stages is called a cascade. In this paper the differential equation describing the time-dependence of a tapered cascade in which the interstage flow changes stage by stage is derived and solved under some reasonable assumptions. On the basis of these analytical results, the static and dynamic characteristics of a tapered cascade are discussed. For the same total number of stages, the cascade requiring the largest equilibrium time to reach steady-state condition is described. Also shown is that the so-called ideal cascade is not recommended from the standpoint of dynamic characteristics, although its superiority in static characteristics is familiar. It is pointed out that by a slight reduction of the cut θ from that of the ideal cascade θideal the dynamic characteristics are improved to some extent, but the selection of θ greater than θideal results in both static and dynamic characteristics being unfavorable. It is also shown that the equilibrium time of a tapered cascade tends to increase with the total number of stages N in proportion to N2 as in a square cascade. The top stage is not always the last to reach the steady-state condition. A simple method is proposed to predict how the equilibrium time differs in each stage of the cascade.