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Nuclear Criticality Safety
NCSD provides communication among nuclear criticality safety professionals through the development of standards, the evolution of training methods and materials, the presentation of technical data and procedures, and the creation of specialty publications. In these ways, the division furthers the exchange of technical information on nuclear criticality safety with the ultimate goal of promoting the safe handling of fissionable materials outside reactors.
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International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
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
Argonne’s METL gears up to test more sodium fast reactor components
Argonne National Laboratory has successfully swapped out an aging cold trap in the sodium test loop called METL (Mechanisms Engineering Test Loop), the Department of Energy announced April 23. The upgrade is the first of its kind in the United States in more than 30 years, according to the DOE, and will help test components and operations for the sodium-cooled fast reactors being developed now.
Xiaotian Li, Xiaowei Li, Li Shi, Zhengming Zhang, Shuyan He
Nuclear Technology | Volume 174 | Number 1 | April 2011 | Pages 29-40
Technical Paper | One-Phase Fluid Flow | doi.org/10.13182/NT11-A11677
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The hot gas duct vessel (HGDV) is an important part of the high-temperature reactor-pebble-bed module (HTR-PM) primary loop pressure boundary system. It connects the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) and steam generator pressure vessel. Because the dimensions of the HGDV are smaller than those of the other two vessels, it is often considered the weakest of the three vessels. Therefore, the safety of the HGDV has become one of the most important issues in the design of the HTR-PM. In the present paper, a comprehensive safety analysis of the HGDV in the HTR-PM was performed with an emphasis on the structural features. The designs of the HGDV and the support system of the primary loop pressure boundary are first described. A preliminary safety analysis of the HGDV, including the stress calculations and leak-before-break (LBB) analysis, is then presented. The results show that the stress levels of the HGDV under various accidents have a safety margin of at least 55.3% compared with the stress limits specified in American Society of Mechanical Engineers code, and the stress intensity factor at the postulated flaw is less than the critical stress intensity factor. The LBB analysis indicated that the leak detection system is capable of detecting leaks caused by a postulated through-thickness crack in the HGDV before it reaches the critical size. Although the preliminary analysis has proved the safety of the HGDV, the consequences of a hypothetical HGDV double-ended break accident were also studied to further investigate the safety features of the HTR-PM. Several mitigation measures were employed based on the original design. The structural integrity of the support system, the reactor internals, and the containment under double-ended break accident were evaluated. The results show that these main structures could maintain integrity under the HGDV double-ended break accident.