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Division Spotlight
Education, Training & Workforce Development
The Education, Training & Workforce Development Division provides communication among the academic, industrial, and governmental communities through the exchange of views and information on matters related to education, training and workforce development in nuclear and radiological science, engineering, and technology. Industry leaders, education and training professionals, and interested students work together through Society-sponsored meetings and publications, to enrich their professional development, to educate the general public, and to advance nuclear and radiological science and engineering.
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!
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Latest News
First astatine-labeled compound shipped in the U.S.
The Department of Energy’s National Isotope Development Center (NIDC) on March 31 announced the successful long-distance shipment in the United States of a biologically active compound labeled with the medical radioisotope astatine-211 (At-211). Because previous shipments have included only the “bare” isotope, the NIDC has described the development as “unleashing medical innovation.”
M. Rajendrakumar, K. Natesan, K. Devan
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 198 | Number 9 | September 2024 | Pages 1843-1873
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2023.2273570
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The design of the next generation of fast breeder reactors has commenced, with the main targets being enhanced safety and improved economy. Nuclear heat generated in the fuel subassembly of fast reactors is removed by circulating sodium through the core using centrifugal pumps. The primary sodium pumps (PSPs) used are large-capacity pumps, and the design of these pumps is different from that of traditional pumps. Though many works have been reported for the performance prediction of centrifugal pumps, most of these works have been carried out in a decoupled way, and only a few works have been reported where the pump is modeled with all the associated geometric structures.
Centrifugal pumps are prone to a phenomenon called suction recirculation, which occurs when pumps are operated significantly below the best efficiency point. This suction recirculation has a strong potential to damage the impeller. Correlations given in the literature for the prediction of the onset of recirculation cannot be used for complicated inlet geometries, and three-dimensional computation fluid dynamics (CFD) investigations are most suited for such applications. Many devices have been reported in the literature to reduce the intensity of (or to suppress) suction recirculation. Webs provided in the suction plenum will modify the velocity distribution at the impeller inlet and also can influence suction recirculation.
In this work, the centrifugal pump used for primary sodium pumping for fast reactor applications is simulated using CFD techniques in an integrated way. The frozen rotor approach is used to simulate the impeller-diffuser hydraulics. The effect of flow hydraulics in the suction plenum, flow distribution in the standpipe–pump gap, and flow conditions in the pool on the performance characteristics of PSPs are simulated. The flow rate for the onset of suction recirculation is predicted and compared with correlations available in the literature. Simulations are carried out to study the effect of webs on suction recirculation. The effects of the number of webs and the web geometry are also studied.
