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Division Spotlight
Robotics & Remote Systems
The Mission of the Robotics and Remote Systems Division is to promote the development and application of immersive simulation, robotics, and remote systems for hazardous environments for the purpose of reducing hazardous exposure to individuals, reducing environmental hazards and reducing the cost of performing work.
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!
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Jul 2024
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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.
F. Quinteros, P. Rubiolo, V. Ghetta, J. Giraud, N. Capellan
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 197 | Number 8 | August 2023 | Pages 2176-2191
Technical papers from: PHYSOR 2022 | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2023.2167470
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) is carrying out design studies on a nuclear electric propulsion (NEP) engine based on a molten salt reactor (MSR). A NEP engine based on liquid nuclear fuel could allow developing a core design with relatively high power densities and temperatures while using simple reactivity control systems and keeping low pressure and temperature gradients in the fuel. Nevertheless, the design work of such an engine poses significant technical challenges and requires the use of advanced numerical simulation tools. Different MSRs for space are currently being studied. In this work, a MSR concept using a fast neutron spectrum is investigated using a multiphysics tool based on a numerical coupling between the OpenFOAM (computational fluid dynamics) and SERPENT 2 (Monte Carlo neutronics) codes. The analysis of this paper is focused on the reactor core coupled neutronic and thermal-hydraulic phenomena. Steady state full-power conditions are calculated for two different fast MSR designs using low-enriched uranium (LEU) and highly enriched uranium. The results show that the proposed core layout and materials allow obtaining a satisfactory temperature distribution in the core (maximal values and gradients) without significant penalization of the reactor operating conditions. A reactivity control strategy excluding the use of control rods is studied for the LEU concept. Transient and safety studies are also performed and show acceptable performance.