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
Aerospace Nuclear Science & Technology
Organized to promote the advancement of knowledge in the use of nuclear science and technologies in the aerospace application. Specialized nuclear-based technologies and applications are needed to advance the state-of-the-art in aerospace design, engineering and operations to explore planetary bodies in our solar system and beyond, plus enhance the safety of air travel, especially high speed air travel. Areas of interest will include but are not limited to the creation of nuclear-based power and propulsion systems, multifunctional materials to protect humans and electronic components from atmospheric, space, and nuclear power system radiation, human factor strategies for the safety and reliable operation of nuclear power and propulsion plants by non-specialized personnel and more.
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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December 2024
Nuclear Technology
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November 2024
Latest News
MIT’s nuclear professional courses benefit United States—and now Australia too
Some 30 nuclear engineering departments at universities across the United States graduate more than 900 students every year. These young men and women are the present and future of the domestic nuclear industry as it seeks to develop and deploy advanced nuclear energy technologies, grow its footprint on the power grid, and penetrate new markets while continuing to run the existing fleet of reactors reliably and economically.
Jae-Woo Ju, Sang-Moon Lee, Kwang-Yong Kim
Nuclear Technology | Volume 181 | Number 2 | February 2013 | Pages 274-281
Technical Paper | Fission Reactors/Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT13-A15783
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The outlet plenum of a pebble bed modular-type gas-cooled nuclear reactor was optimized using three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes analysis and optimization techniques. A shear stress transport turbulence model was used as a turbulence closure. Two design variables for the optimization were selected: dimensionless displacement on the horizontal line and the angle of rotation about the center of gravity of the roof support block. The objective function was defined as a pressure drop between the inlet and the outlet of the outlet plenum. Latin hypercube sampling was used for selecting experimental design points within the design space. The objective function value was obtained at each design point through numerical analysis. The results show that the optimal design significantly improved the performance of the outlet plenum with respect to pressure drop. Through optimization, the pressure drop decreased by 11.8% compared to the pressure drop under the reference geometry.