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
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
Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2025)
February 3–6, 2025
Amelia Island, FL|Omni Amelia Island Resort
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
Terrestrial Energy looks at EnergySolutions-owned sites for IMSR plants
Advanced reactor developer Terrestrial Energy and Utah-based waste management company EnergySolutions announced they have signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on the siting and deployment of Terrestrial Energy’s integral molten salt reactor plants at EnergySolutions-owned sites.
David Blanchet, Bruno Fontaine
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 177 | Number 3 | July 2014 | Pages 260-274
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE13-59
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The current design studies on sodium-cooled fast reactors (SFRs) are breaking with the past since they are guided by a new set of design criteria arising from the objectives of Generation IV reactors. The new safety requirements lead to designing reactors with breakeven breeding cores because in terms of reactivity control, they minimize the need to limit the consequences of an inadvertent control rod withdrawal event. Furthermore, as the reactivity control needs are low, a breakeven core enables the use of absorbing materials with reduced efficiency (natural boron, hafnium, etc.), which may be less costly than enriched boron. However, control rods designed with low absorbing materials may present the disadvantage of a nonnegligible loss of efficiency due to their consumption under irradiation. This paper presents a methodology to accurately calculate and to analyze the impact of this consumption on reactivity control.