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
Materials Science & Technology
The objectives of MSTD are: promote the advancement of materials science in Nuclear Science Technology; support the multidisciplines which constitute it; encourage research by providing a forum for the presentation, exchange, and documentation of relevant information; promote the interaction and communication among its members; and recognize and reward its members for significant contributions to the field of materials science in nuclear technology.
Meeting Spotlight
ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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
Apr 2025
Jan 2025
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
May 2025
Nuclear Technology
April 2025
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
General Kenneth Nichols and the Manhattan Project
Nichols
The Oak Ridger has published the latest in a series of articles about General Kenneth D. Nichols, the Manhattan Project, and the 1954 Atomic Energy Act. The series has been produced by Nichols’ grandniece Barbara Rogers Scollin and Oak Ridge (Tenn.) city historian David Ray Smith. Gen. Nichols (1907–2000) was the district engineer for the Manhattan Engineer District during the Manhattan Project.
As Smith and Scollin explain, Nichols “had supervision of the research and development connected with, and the design, construction, and operation of, all plants required to produce plutonium-239 and uranium-235, including the construction of the towns of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Richland, Washington. The responsibility of his position was massive as he oversaw a workforce of both military and civilian personnel of approximately 125,000; his Oak Ridge office became the center of the wartime atomic energy’s activities.”
Sapna Singh, A. K. Nayak, J. Aparna
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 184 | Number 2 | October 2016 | Pages 263-279
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE15-125
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Natural-circulation systems are gaining wide acceptance due to their inherent passive safety features, which makes them more reliable to use in nuclear power plants. In view of this, many Generation III and III+ nuclear reactors have been designed with natural circulation as a mode of core cooling. But, the major area of concern in these kinds of systems is still the complex phenomenon of boiling two-phase-flow instabilities, which is yet to be fully understood especially when power and pressure in the system are low (type I instability). A major factor in this regard is to know the sensitivity of the number of parallel channels to the characteristic behavior of these flow oscillations in systems like those of a boiling water reactor. Based on mathematical models, in the past, some authors reported that any number of channels behaves in the same way as a twin-channel system. There is no experimental study to validate this. This experimental investigation has been done to add insight. A parallel-multichannel closed loop filled with water and maintained at atmospheric pressure was used for the study. Power in the individual heated sections of the loop was increased from 0 to 2 kW in steps of 250 W. Each power level was maintained for ~30 min. After reaching 2 kW, power was decreased to 0 kW. Three cases of experiments were done by taking two, four, and six active channels at a time, respectively. Different flow oscillation parameters such as amplitude, frequency, phase difference, general characteristics, etc., were studied to see if they were affected when the number of parallel channels was changed. The present analysis showed that their behavior is sensitive toward changes in the number of parallel channels. We cannot extrapolate twin-channel data when there are more channels in a system. The present paper discusses the experiments performed and the detailed results in support of this argument.