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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
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
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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Latest News
TerraPower begins U.K. regulatory approval process
Seattle-based TerraPower signaled its interest this week in building its Natrium small modular reactor in the United Kingdom, the company announced.
TerraPower sent a letter to the U.K.’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, formally establishing its intention to enter the U.K. generic design assessment (GDA) process. This is TerraPower’s first step in deployment of its Natrium technology—a 345-MW sodium fast reactor coupled with a molten salt energy storage unit—on the international stage.
Kazuyuki Takase, Kunugi Tomoaki, Masurou Ogawa, Yasushi Seki
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 125 | Number 2 | February 1997 | Pages 223-231
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE97-A24269
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
As one of thermofluid safety studies in the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, buoyancy-driven exchange flow behavior through breaches of a vacuum vessel (VV) has been investigated quantitatively by using a preliminary loss-of-vacuum-event (LOVA) apparatus that simulated the tokamak VV of a fusion reactor with a small-scaled model. To carry out the present experiments under the atmospheric pressure condition, helium gas and air were provided as the working fluids. The inside of the VV was initially filled with helium gas and the outside was atmosphere. The breaches on the VV under the LOVA condition were simulated by opening six simulated breaches to which were set the different positions on the VV. When the buoyancy-driven exchange flow through the breach occurred, helium gas went out from the inside of the VV through the breach to the outside and air flowed into the inside of the VV through the breach from the outside. The exchange rate in the VV between helium gas and air was calculated from the measured weight change of the VV with time since the experiment has started. Experimental parameters were breach position, breach number, breach length, breach size, and breach combination. The present study clarifies that the relation between the exchange rate and the breach position of the VV depended on the magnitude of the potential energy from the ground level to the breach position, and then, the exchange rate decreased as the breach length increased and as the breach size decreased.