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
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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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.
F. L. Carlsen, Jr., E. S. Bomar, W. O. Harms
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 20 | Number 2 | October 1964 | Pages 180-200
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE64-A28932
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Progress is reported in several areas of development of fueled graphite containing coated particles for nonpurged gas-cooled reactor systems. The sol-gel process has been modified for making spherical particles of both thorium/uranium carbide and thorium/uranium oxide suitable for coating. Equipment has been assembled and methods have been developed for deposition of pyrolytic-carbon coatings under well-controlled conditions. Damage to coated particles during fabrication into a graphite matrix depends on the molding pressure and the volumetric content of coated particles. Vendor-supplied coated particles and fueled graphite spheres have been evaluated extensively in both in- and out-of-reactor tests. Duplex- and triplex-coated particles have excellent fission-gas retention at 2050 F to burnups of 15 at.%. Fueled graphite spheres containing coated particles have good irradiation performance, but the fission-gas-release rates are somewhat higher than for unsupported coated particles. Fueled graphite spheres react with water vapor about as rapidly as do Speer Mod-2 and ATJ grades of graphite. The diffusion rates in pyrolytic carbon are the same for uranium, thorium and protactinium. The diffusion rates in the direction parallel to the deposition plane are much higher than those in the perpendicular direction.