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
Accelerator Applications
The division was organized to promote the advancement of knowledge of the use of particle accelerator technologies for nuclear and other applications. It focuses on production of neutrons and other particles, utilization of these particles for scientific or industrial purposes, such as the production or destruction of radionuclides significant to energy, medicine, defense or other endeavors, as well as imaging and diagnostics.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
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
May 2024
Jan 2024
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
June 2024
Nuclear Technology
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Developing a new regulatory framework for advanced reactors: Update on Part 53
White
The American Nuclear Society’s Risk-informed, Performance-based Principles and Policy Committee (RP3C) on March 29 held another presentation in its monthly Community of Practice (CoP) series. The presenter, Patrick White with the Nuclear Innovation Alliance (NIA), talked about the current status of efforts to develop a new regulatory framework for advanced reactors—known as 10 CFR Part 53 or simply Part 53. White serves as the research director of the NIA, where he leads their research as well as analysis-based stakeholder and policymaker engagement and education. White’s March 29 presentation is publicly available on YouTube and at ANS’s publication platform Nuclear Science and Technology Open Research (NSTOR).
RP3C chair N. Prasad Kadambi opened the CoP with brief introductory remarks about the RP3C before he welcomed White as the session’s presenter.
White covered three main topics: the history of the existing regulatory frameworks for new reactors, progress to date on the development of the Part 53 rule for advanced reactors, and the current status and next steps for the Part 53 rulemaking process.
F. Nagase, R. O. Gauntt, M. Naito
Nuclear Technology | Volume 196 | Number 3 | December 2016 | Pages 499-510
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NT16-10
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Benchmark Study of the Accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (BSAF) project, run by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development/Nuclear Energy Agency, was established in November 2012. The primary objectives of this benchmark study are to estimate accident progression and status inside the nuclear reactors, including the distribution of fuel debris, and consequently, to contribute to the decommissioning activity at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Altogether, 17 organizations from eight countries calculated the thermohydraulic behavior inside the three reactors for the time span of about 6 days from the occurrence of the earthquake with their severe accident integral codes. Since many boundary conditions are unknown for the accident, those necessary for the calculation were discussed and determined by the participants.
The results submitted were compared on coolant level change, hydrogen generation, initiation and progression of melt in fuel bundle and control blade, failure of reactor pressure vessel, distribution and composition of molten and solidified materials, and progression of the molten core–concrete interaction. Finally, the current estimates of the accident progression and status inside the reactors were summarized together with the still remaining uncertainties and data needs as the output from the project.