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
Young Members Group
The Young Members Group works to encourage and enable all young professional members to be actively involved in the efforts and endeavors of the Society at all levels (Professional Divisions, ANS Governance, Local Sections, etc.) as they transition from the role of a student to the role of a professional. It sponsors non-technical workshops and meetings that provide professional development and networking opportunities for young professionals, collaborates with other Divisions and Groups in developing technical and non-technical content for topical and national meetings, encourages its members to participate in the activities of the Groups and Divisions that are closely related to their professional interests as well as in their local sections, introduces young members to the rules and governance structure of the Society, and nominates young professionals for awards and leadership opportunities available to members.
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.
Sheng Zhang, Hsun-Chia Lin, Xiaodong Sun
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 197 | Number 5 | May 2023 | Pages 920-946
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2022.2102389
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Molten salt reactors (MSRs) are a class of Generation IV nuclear reactors using molten salts as heat transfer fluids. MSRs bring a number of benefits, including low primary system working pressure, high working temperature, and enhanced safety due to the passive safety systems adopted. Although MSRs promise these benefits, a number of key technology needs, such as the accurate prediction of the thermal-hydraulic performance of the passive safety systems, which completely rely on natural circulation, are indispensable for MSR development, licensing, and future deployment. Therefore, this study develops the one-dimensional (1D) NAtural Circulation COde (NACCO) considering the buoyancy and radiative heat transfer effects in high-temperature molten salts for such predictions. The 1D code, developed using MATLAB, is then benchmarked with experimental data from three natural circulation flow experiments, where water, nitrate salt NaNO3-KNO3 (60–40 wt%), and fluoride salt LiF-BeF2 (66–34 mol%, FLiBe) were used as the working fluids. Our analysis shows that (1) the buoyancy and radiative heat transfer effects need to be considered for high-temperature molten salt natural circulation flows, while the radiative heat transfer effect is negligible for low-temperature water flows in the natural circulation experiments investigated, and (2) the 1D code NACCO predicts salt temperature profiles reasonably well, with less than 18°C and 25°C discrepancies from experimental data for the pipe centerline temperature of NaNO3-KNO3 and FLiBe up to 450°C and 750°C, respectively.