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
Fusion Energy
This division promotes the development and timely introduction of fusion energy as a sustainable energy source with favorable economic, environmental, and safety attributes. The division cooperates with other organizations on common issues of multidisciplinary fusion science and technology, conducts professional meetings, and disseminates technical information in support of these goals. Members focus on the assessment and resolution of critical developmental issues for practical fusion energy applications.
Meeting Spotlight
Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo (UWC 2024)
August 4–7, 2024
Marco Island, FL|JW Marriott Marco Island
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
Jul 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
August 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
ARPA-E announces $40 million to develop transmutation technologies for UNF
The Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) announced $40 million in funding to develop cutting-edge technologies to enable the transmutation of used nuclear fuel into less-radioactive substances. According to ARPA-E, the new initiative addresses one of the agency’s core goals as outlined by Congress: to provide transformative solutions to improve the management, cleanup, and disposal of radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel.
S. Patnaik, B. W. Spencer, E. Roberts, T. M. Besmann, T. W. Knight
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 195 | Number 12 | December 2021 | Pages 1307-1326
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2021.1932223
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A variety of normal operation and accident scenarios can generate thermal stresses large enough to cause cracking in ceramic fuel pellets. Cracking in fuel pellets can lead to reduced heat removal, higher centerline temperatures, and localized stress in the cladding—all which impact fuel performance. It is important to experimentally characterize the thermal and mechanical behaviors in the pellet both before and after cracking, which would help to improve cracking models in fuel performance codes such as BISON. However, in-reactor observation and measurement of cracking are very challenging due to the harsh environment and design of the fuel rods involved. Recently, an experimental pellet-cracking test stand was developed for separate-effects testing of pellet cracking under normal operations and accident temperature conditions using thermal imaging to capture the pellet surface temperatures in order to evaluate the thermal stresses and optical imaging to capture the evolution of cracking in real time. Experiments were performed using depleted uranium dioxide (UO2) pellets, which are useful for collecting valuable data for development and validation of cracking models. A combination of induction and resistance heating was used to create thermal gradients similar to those seen in a reactor environment. Characterization of the pellets was conducted both before and after cracking. The cracking patterns are moderately different from those expected in a typical reactor because of the variations in the thermal conditions and pellet microstructures. However, when the actual conditions of these experiments are reproduced in computational models with sufficient precision, such out-of-pile testing on UO2 pellets provides relevant data for modeling purposes.