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
Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
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.
Kiyonobu Yamashita, Ryuichi Shindo, Isao Murata, So Maruyama, Nozomu Fujimoto, Takeshi Takeda
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 122 | Number 2 | February 1996 | Pages 212-228
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE96-A24156
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The high-temperature engineering test reactor has been designed whose outlet gas temperature is 950°C. That is the highest temperature in the world for a block-type high-temperature gas-cooled reactor. The power distribution in the core was optimized by changing the uranium enrichment to maintain the fuel temperature at less than the limit (1600°C). Deviation from the optimized distribution due to the burnup of fissile materials was avoided by flattening time-dependent changes in local reactivities. Flattening was achieved by optimizing the specifications of the burnable poisons. Control rod destruction of the optimized power distribution was avoided by limiting the depth of insertion. The insertion depth of the control rods is limited by reducing the excess reactivity of the whole core by the burnable poisons to the minimum value necessary for operations.