ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
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Division Spotlight
Thermal Hydraulics
The division provides a forum for focused technical dialogue on thermal hydraulic technology in the nuclear industry. Specifically, this will include heat transfer and fluid mechanics involved in the utilization of nuclear energy. It is intended to attract the highest quality of theoretical and experimental work to ANS, including research on basic phenomena and application to nuclear system design.
Meeting Spotlight
Conference on Nuclear Training and Education: A Biennial International Forum (CONTE 2025)
February 3–6, 2025
Amelia Island, FL|Omni Amelia Island Resort
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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Nuclear Science and Engineering
February 2025
Nuclear Technology
January 2025
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Latest News
Reboot: Nuclear needs a success . . . anywhere
The media have gleefully resurrected the language of a past nuclear renaissance. Beyond the hype and PR, many people in the nuclear community are taking a more measured view of conditions that could lead to new construction: data center demand, the proliferation of new reactor designs and start-ups, and the sudden ascendance of nuclear energy as the power source everyone wants—or wants to talk about.
Once built, large nuclear reactors can provide clean power for at least 80 years—outlasting 10 to 20 presidential administrations. Smaller reactors can provide heat and power outputs tailored to an end user’s needs. With all the new attention, are we any closer to getting past persistent supply chain and workforce issues and building these new plants? And what will the election of Donald Trump to a second term as president mean for nuclear?
As usual, there are more questions than answers, and most come down to money. Several developers are engaging with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission or have already applied for a license, certification, or permit. But designs without paying customers won’t get built. So where are the customers, and what will it take for them to commit?
A. De Volpi, R. J. Pecina, R. T. Daly, D. J. Travis, R. R. Stewart, E. A. Rhodes
Nuclear Technology | Volume 27 | Number 3 | November 1975 | Pages 449-487
Technical Paper | Instruments | doi.org/10.13182/NT75-1
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The fast-neutron hodoscope detects fuel motion within test samples inserted in the center of the Transient Reactor Test Facility (TREAT) reactor core. The hodoscope system has been built to support the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration nuclear reactor safety testing program in which fuel motion is induced under simulated hypothetical conditions. Optical detection methods cannot be used due to opacity of fuel capsules and sodium coolant required in the tests for the sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor program. The hodoscope system includes components necessary to acquire, store, decode, and process the collected data. An area at the test fuel plane 5.7 cm (horizontal) × 52 cm (vertical) is viewed through 334 slots in a steel collimator by an array of 334 Hornyak button fast-neutron detectors. Collimator and detectors are external to the reactor. Horizontal and vertical spatial resolution of fuel pin motion as small as 0.25 and 8 mm, respectively, with a signal-to-background ratio of 7, can be achieved. Test samples can be single- or multipin assemblies enclosed in autoclaves or flowing sodium loops. When a 7-pin cluster is inserted in a flowing sodium loop, horizontal spatial resolution of fuel motion deteriorates to ∼6 mm and the signal-to-background ratio for any one of the pins is reduced to ∼2 (as much as 5 cm of material radially surrounds the fuel pins in this case). Transients at TREAT typically range from 20 to 20 000 MW when the hodoscope is used. To satisfy test objectives, data must be recorded from each detector at count rates up to 2 million/ sec each, time-resolved down to millisecond intervals. This is accomplished in a relatively reliable and inexpensive manner by displaying counts from each detector sequentially in binary code on a lamp panel, which is photographed by a high-speed framing camera, producing a film record of the transient test.