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Division Spotlight
Reactor Physics
The division's objectives are to promote the advancement of knowledge and understanding of the fundamental physical phenomena characterizing nuclear reactors and other nuclear systems. The division encourages research and disseminates information through meetings and publications. Areas of technical interest include nuclear data, particle interactions and transport, reactor and nuclear systems analysis, methods, design, validation and operating experience and standards. The Wigner Award heads the awards program.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Winter Conference and Expo
November 17–21, 2024
Orlando, FL|Renaissance Orlando at SeaWorld
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
Siting of Canadian repository gets support of tribal nation
Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO) announced that Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation has indicated its willingness to support moving forward to the next phase of the site selection process to host a deep geological repository for Canada’s spent nuclear fuel.
M. Rashid, S. Rahman, R. Kulenovic, M. Bürger, E. Laurien
Nuclear Technology | Volume 181 | Number 1 | January 2013 | Pages 208-215
Technical Paper | Special Issue on the 14th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Reactor Thermal Hydraulics (NURETH-14) / Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-A15768
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In the case of a severe accident, continuous unavailability of cooling water to the core will result in overheating and subsequent meltdown of the fuel elements that would eventually result in the loss of fuel integrity. Under such conditions a porous structure, which is made of heat-generating particles of different sizes and shapes, may be formed. The presence of decay heat in such a debris bed poses a critical threat to the reactor pressure vessel (RPV). To avoid any damage to the RPV, the removal of decay heat from the debris bed is of great importance. The debris bed needs to be quenched by water either flooding from the top or flooding from the bottom until continuous cooling is established. To investigate the quenching behavior of the debris bed by means of experiments, the nonnuclear test facility "DEBRIS" has been established at Institut für Kernenergetik und Energiesysteme (IKE). Experimental investigations of quenching behavior for a preheated debris bed, at various initial bed temperatures, are carried out at IKE. In the new quenching tests, the cooling-down behavior of a superheated polydispersed particle bed from stainless steel spheres at different thermohydraulic conditions has been investigated. Numerical investigation with IKE's MEWA-2D code has also been carried out for the quenching experiments in order to promote better understanding of the experimental results as well as to verify the code's applicability to the quenching process.